Xerox finantial scandal

Essay by anersarataUniversity, Master's March 2004

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What is XEROX?

Xerox Corporation is a $15.7 billion technology and services enterprise that helps businesses deploy smart document management strategies and find better ways to work. Its intent is to constantly lead with innovative technologies, products and solutions that customers can depend upon to improve business results.

Xerox provides the document industry's broadest portfolio of offerings. Digital systems include color and black-and-white printing and publishing systems, digital presses and "book factories," multifunction devices, laser and solid ink network printers, copiers and fax machines. Xerox's services expertise is unmatched and includes helping businesses develop online document archives, analyzing how employees can most efficiently share documents and knowledge in the office, operating in-house print shops or mailrooms, and building Web-based processes for personalizing direct mail, invoices, brochures and more. Xerox also offers associated software, support and supplies such as toner, paper and ink.

Headquartered in Stamford, Conn., Xerox is No.130 among the Fortune 500 and has 61,100 employees worldwide, including 35,600 in the United States (December 2003).

The company's operations are guided by customer-focused and employee-centered core values (such as social responsibility, diversity and quality) augmented by a passion for innovation, speed and adaptability.

Summary of the scandal

Xerox was a leading technological innovator for most of the last half of the 20th century. But by the late 1990s, the company was confronting intense product and price competition from its overseas rivals. As a result, increasing revenues and earnings became more difficult. This difficulty was apparent from the underlying operating results visible to Xerox before the company implemented top-side adjustments and other accounting actions.

The investment climate of the 1990s added to pressures on Xerox. Companies that failed to meet Wall Street's earnings estimates by even a penny often were punished by significant declines in stock price. In addition, compensation of...