Japan: Fujifilm to sue over thwarted Xerox merger deal

Fujifilm has declared its intention to sue Xerox for damages, saying the latter had “no legal right” to unilaterally pull out of the planned merger deal, reported Bloomberg.

Fujifilm plans to file a lawsuit as soon as possible, President Kenji Sukeno said Friday, May 18, in his first public comments days after the American office products company called off the deal in a settlement with activist shareholders Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason. Still, Fujifilm would also consider any new offer from Xerox, Sukeno said.

“The contract that ties the two companies together is still valid,” Sukeno said at a briefing in Tokyo to announce the company’s financial results. “We will push for the legality of it. There was a legal contract that everyone agreed on, and after that a few shareholders wanted to put a stop to it.”

Fujifilm last week disputed Xerox’s “unilateral decision” to scrap a plan for the Japanese company to take control of the once-iconic American office equipment supplier. Icahn and Deason, two of the biggest shareholders who argued the deal undervalued Xerox, succeeded in their bid to stymie the transaction and push out the American company’s chief executive officer.

Full Content: Bloomberg

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