Printer manufacturer Xerox announced Tuesday that it will abandon its efforts to acquire larger rival PC and printer company HP, citing the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
Xerox had previously announced that it would pause its takeover efforts during the pandemic and stop pursuing meetings with HP shareholders, but HP stated in a March 25 letter to its shareholders that Xerox had not actually withdrawn its tender offer.
According to Tuesday’s announcement, Xerox will now take that step.
“While it is disappointing to take this step, we are prioritizing the health, safety and well-being of our employees, customers, partners and other stakeholders, and our broader response to the pandemic, over and above all other considerations,” the company said in a statement.
Xerox made an initial $33.5 billion offer to acquire HP in November, which HP rejected on the grounds that it undervalued the company and would saddle the combined company with too much debt.
Xerox, which has a manufacturing operation in Wilsonville, Ore., vowed to take its proposal directly to HP shareholders, and made a number of moves over the following few months aimed at strengthening its position, including raising the acquisition offer, lining up additional credit to fund the transaction and nominating its own full slate of candidates for HP’s board of directors, to be considered at HP’s annual shareholder meeting.
The board candidate nominations will also be withdrawn, Xerox said on Tuesday.
HP is headquartered in California and operates two offices in the Columbia Tech Center. The company’s local presence dates back to 1979 when its corporate predecessor, the Hewlett-Packard Co., opened a manufacturing facility in Vancouver.
The company later outsourced its manufacturing operations, but the local office still operates as one of HP’s research and development divisions with a focus on 3D printing, which HP has routinely described as one of its biggest future growth areas.
The local office is one of Clark County’s largest employers, with about 700 workers and another 400 full-time contractors, according to estimates from the city of Vancouver. The city announced in January that HP had agreed to purchase 68 acres of land at the site of the former English Pit mine, with the intention of developing part of the land into a new corporate campus.
