Xerox to Split in Two; Carl Icahn to Get Three Board Seats

Company plans to divide into separate hardware, services businesses

ENLARGE

Xerox Chief Executive Ursula Burns in September last year. The firm plans to divide itself into one company containing its hardware operations and another housing its services business. PHOTO:JOSHUA LOTT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

By 

DANA MATTIOLI,

 

DAVID BENOIT and

DREW FITZGERALD

Updated Jan. 28, 2016 7:52 p.m. ET

Xerox Corp. will split itself in two and give several board seats to activist investor Carl Icahn, reversing an effort by the century-old company to marry business services with its copiers and printers.

Xerox will divide into two publicly traded companies: one containing its office machines and another housing its services operations, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is expected to make the announcement Friday when it is forecast to report a fourth straight year of declining profits and sales.

The split unravels Xerox’s biggest ever acquisition, the 2010 purchase of Affiliated Computer Services Inc. for about $6 billion, which pushed Xerox deeper into providing bill processing, managing call centers and other back-office services to government agencies and corporations. The split would follow a similar move by rival Hewlett-Packard Co. last fall.