Lexmark earnings are out and they weren’t good. This is not a problem unique to Lexmark. Nearly every major brand experienced a challenging quarter.
While Lexmark’s numbers were pretty poor overall, there were areas where they weren’t too bad comparatively, even in this industry slump we seemed to experience.
Revenue was down 1%. OK, not great, but a 1% slide is essentially flat. Printers and MFPs were down 2%, again pretty much flat. IDC reported the hardcopy peripherals market was down 3.7% in Q2 so to me, that would seem like they did slightly better than the pack.
Like others, Lexmark is in a bit of a waiting period. Once the acquisition by Apex/PAG is complete, I would expect a revitalized Lexmark. As a relatively smaller company in this industry, things have been tight for Lexmark. Yet they have stayed competitive. Their newly released Smart MFPs are compelling products and they’ve done an excellent job getting their portfolio into the pitchbooks of some of the biggest dealers in the channel.
Once the acquisition is complete, Lexmark will be owned by a company with much deeper pockets and one that is also focused on the print industry. One would think APEX/PAG would be pretty motivated to continue the progress Lexmark has made over the last 5 years. They didn’t buy this printer division to let it die.
~Andy Slawetsky