Xerox buys imaging services firm IBS for €21m

IRISH BUSINESS Systems (IBS), a printing and imaging services group, has been bought by Xerox for €21 million, yielding a substantial pay day for its founder, Cork businessman Jerry Carey.

Mr Carey is the majority shareholder in IBS and will receive "about 80 per cent" of the purchase price, he told The Irish Times. His brother, Tom Carey, is the other shareholder in the company, which was founded in 1972 and has its headquarters in Cork. The deal was an all-cash transaction.

Mr Carey is to continue working as the managing director of IBS, which will now become part of Xerox Europe. The company has cancelled its arrangements with its existing Japanese supplier and will start selling Xerox document management products.

IBS, which had a turnover of €19.1 million in 2008, employs 180 people across eight offices in Ireland and was the largest independent supplier of digital imaging and printing products in Ireland. Xerox employs 700 people in Ireland in Dublin, Belfast and Dundalk.

IBS’s workforce will not be reduced as a result of the acquisition by Xerox, Mr Carey said.

“This is one of the critical things, all of the jobs will stay. This is one of the major planks of the Xerox deal,” he said. “The business will be staying the same.”

Xerox “came knocking” for IBS early in 2009 and tentative negotiations had begun at that point, Mr Carey added.

He was later advised by his daughter, an accountant who works for IBS, that she did not want to take over the full running of the company, and so “because the timing was right”, Mr Carey decided to sell IBS “after 38 years in the business”.

Robert Corbishley, a spokesman for Xerox Europe, said the acquisition was part of the Xerox’s push into providing back-up and maintenance services for its fleets of office devices and its plan to extend its footprint in the small and medium business sector.

Xerox Corporation is due to release details of its fourth quarter and full-year 2009 earnings today. On Tuesday, it received approval from European Union regulators for its $5.5 billion takeover of Affiliated Computer Services (ASC), its largest acquisition to date, and the first major deal by its new chief executive, Ursula Burns.

IBS will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox under the deal. It will keep its name and keep its headquarters in Cork. Over time, IBS will sell the full range of Xerox hardware, including its business printer range and multifunction units that print, copy, fax and scan.