DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Xerox Corp. (XRX) Chairman and Chief Executive Anne M. Mulcahy
will give up day-to-day oversight of the company she helped turn
around, retiring July 1 and being succeeded as CEO by President
Ursula M. Burns.
Mulcahy, 56 years old, will continue to run the board. She
became CEO eight years ago when the company was struggling after a
string of quarterly losses amid falling market share and a probe
regarding Xerox's accounting practices.
The company is being pinched by the global spread of economic
weakness as well as by the stronger dollar, because it gets most of
its revenue from overseas. Xerox makes printers both for offices
and large-scale production, but garners most of its sales from its
services businesses, which include maintenance contracts, printing
supplies and lease revenues.
"It has been a privilege leading Xerox," Mulcahy said in a
statement. "The decision to move on is made easy only in the fact
that Ursula Burns is so well positioned to take Xerox to the next
level. Our strategy is sound and well defined. And, despite a tough
economy, we are generating cash, building our technology and
services pipeline and poised for a period of steady profitable
growth in the future."
Mulcahy joined Xerox in 1976 as a sales representative, four
years before the 50-year-old Burns came on board as a mechanical
engineering summer intern. Burns became president in April 2007, a
post she will not keep. Xerox spokesman Carl Langsenkamp said the
company hasn't announced yet what it will do to fill the
position.
Shares closed Wednesday at $6.90 and haven't traded premarket.
Despite a rebound in the past two months, the stock is still off by
half in the last year.
-By Kerry E. Grace, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5089;
kerry.grace@dowjones.com