Xerox Acquires French IJ Firm Impika

Xerox announced that it has acquired Impika, an Aubagne, France producer of inkjet printing solutions. The acquisition will expand Xerox’s  production inkjet capabilities, especially for industrial, commercial, security, label, and packaging applications.

Mr. Jeff Jacobson, President of Xerox’s Graphic Communications Operations, said that Xerox sees production inkjet as ”the next big technology,” citing a prediction by IT Strategies of a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21% in the production inkjet market through 2015.

He explained that Impika will keep its name and brand and that Paul Morgavi, President and CEO of Impika, will continue to run the firm and report to Mr. Jacobson as will his current staff of 55 employees.

Despite plans for the two companies to work together and ”realize synergies”, Xerox will retain R&D activities on its solid ink production devices, while Impika will maintain R&D of its aqueous ink products.

Mr. Morgavi described Impika as being ”on the threshold of something big” and claimed it needs help to enter the next level. He asserted that, as part of Xerox, Impika will have the global coverage it requires.

Mr. Jacobson expressed confidence and commented that Xerox can be the market leader in production printing.