Lexmark Layoffs the Result of Shifting Technologies
January 9, 2013
“Difficult decisions need to be made.” That’s what Lexmark’s executive vice president Marty Canning said about the company’s recent layoff of 550 workers in Lexington, KY, we learn in “Lexmark in Midst of Major Change” from the Lexington Herald-Leader. Under pressure from a shifting industry, the company has chosen to shift with it.
Based in Lexington, Lexmark began as a spinoff of IBM in 1991, offering a series of dot-matrix printers. Remember those? The company moved on to laser and inkjet printers, and expanded its Lexington operations as the sale of inkjet cartridges soared. Since then, of course, laser printers have outpaced their inkjet cousins, and demand for those cartridges plummeted. Lexmark has now made the tough call to abandon the inkjet business altogether. Reporter Scott Sloan describes the company’s new course:
“For the past several years, the Lexington-based printer maker has been in the midst of changing strategies and made five key acquisitions since 2010 designed to take the company further from its roots only in printers and more into computer software and services.
“It’s part of a trend of printer companies working to make themselves invaluable to businesses by getting more involved in the flow of information, regardless of whether it ever shows up on a printed page.
“For some of Lexington’s operations that have been rooted more in Lexmark’s past, it meant a painful contraction, but the company’s leaders say it’s a necessity to evolve and stay strong.”
The article clearly lays out the history of Lexmark, its recent acquisitions, and its vision for the future; it is worth the read. Will the changes by Lexmark lead to a new golden age for the printer company turned software provider? Stay tuned.
Cynthia Murrell, January 09, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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