Konica Minolta to purchase Danka

Well the rumors of who is going to buy Danka are finally over. The "winner" is Konica-Minolta, who "won" by getting a company for slightly more than half their annual sales revenue. Danka Office Imaging serves over 45,000 customers across the U.S. and generated about $450 million in revenue for the fiscal year ended March, 2007. Konica Minolta picked them up for $240 Million, a relative bargain, considering they get a large group of new customers to displace Canon, Toshiba and HP equipment with their own. Surely Canon and HP will drop Danka from their distribution channel as fast as they can, as they did when Xerox purchased Global Imaging Systems. Not sure what Toshiba will do as Danka was a large distributor for them and also a national service department for Toshiba.

In my tenure the rumor mill was that Toshiba was going to buy Danka. Then the rumor became Ricoh since they purchased Danka's European division. While I was with Danka it was pretty obvious they were looking to be purchased by a larger company. It began when they outsourced their HR department and divided the company into 4 distinct operating entities across the US. Then they began to lay off sales and support personnel and many long-time employees.

All that was left to purchase was the leaner sales and service departments with low overhead. Danka was selling Canon, Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard products, along with larger production equipment from Kodak's Digimaster line (Which they owned, sold, bought back, sold again.....) and 2 Hitachi models (since sold off too) .

Now the next interesting thing to watch is who is going to buy Ikon. With Global Imaging becoming Xerox (right after Global hit $1 Billion in sales with 185,000 customers) last year and Danka becoming Konica Minolta (450 Million with 45,000 customers) in May 2008, Canon and HP have lost large distribution/service channels. Canon is left with Ikon and Canon Business Solutions, as well as many smaller independent dealers across the country. What they lost with Danka was a national dealer with lots of service presence throughout the country. Canon does not do their own service but relies on their dealer channel to service equipment they sell direct to the end user.

The wrinkle is that HP just put their new Edgeline inkjet-based copier line in Danka's hands for a national service presence since they also outsource their service to a network of HP dealers. I can't imagine either Canon or HP doing business with Danka once they are Konica Minolta, so both Canon and HP may be looking to Ikon for an increased role in their equipment service...and maybe revenue and sales too! HP is going to push big to move inkjet-based Edgeline copiers into the corporate office but they need a national repair ability if they want to support corporate sales nationally. Look out Ikon, I think your value just increased through no fault of your own.

Welcome to the copier jungle

Wlcoeme to a bolg aubot my ltitle corenr of the wrlod. I reecnelty learend taht the brian can raed wodrs eevn if the lteters are srcabmled up. As lnog as yuo put the frsit and lsat lteters in the prpoer poitsion yuor bairn sees tehm as wohle wodrs and unerdtsands aynawy.

Interesting huh? Thanks to Joe Vitale ( you might have seen him in The Secret) for that bit of useless information. However, his book "Hypnotic Writing" was excellent. You are getting sleepy. Your mind is emptying out all thought. As you take a deep breath in, you feel more and more relaxed. How would it feel to be more relaxed? Feel the tension ease around your eyes. As you breathe in deeply, start the breath by making your stomach push out. Fill the lower part of your lungs first and inhale to a count of 4. Now hold that breath for 3 seconds before you pull your stomach in and exhale for 4 seconds. Now wait 3 seconds before your start your next breath.

But that's not what Mr. Vitale's book is about anyway. Hypnotic Writing teaches you to use the power of the word to paint a picture in the readers mind. For anyone who wants to write with more persuasiveness it is a highly suggested read. So what made me read his book? Well, I recently finished writing a book about how to buy copiers and wanted to spruce it up with personal stories and more persuasive information. After reading Mr. Vitale's book, I rewrote about 30 of 100 pages and added many anecdotal stories. Now the book is my first masterpiece.

Short history... I spent 5 years selling copiers with Konica Minolta, Danka and a local Canon, Kyocera, Oki and H-P dealership and realized most people looking for a copier or network printer have:
1. no clue as to what they need
2. no idea what features they need to save time and money
3. no time to do research or shop for the best equipment
4. no real idea what to pay for a copier, once they find what they want
5. no idea whether to buy or lease or what different leases represent
6. the stupid notion that the copier salesman is out to find you the best equipment at the lowest price (they work on commission and bonuses folks!)

So I searched for a book on Google and found none that covered all the topics a purchaser should know. Thus www.howtobuycopiers.com was born. Go ahead and check it out. Tell your friends and co-workers. Mention it to your kids at dinner tonight. Be sure to let your church, synagogue or mosque know about it. Stick your head out the window and shout, "I'm tired of this crappy copier and I'm not going to take it anymore. Go to www.howtobuycopiers.com." Then sign up and buy a copy. Makes a great Valentine's gift (at the least, for my wife 'cause the money I make selling them will go to buy her jewelry.) And best of all, it's cheaper than me having to pay to advertise it.So if you can't tell by now, this blog is a scary trip through my stream of consiousness. Hang on tight, return your seats to an upright position, fasten your seatbelts and get ready for that rollercoaster ride I like to call "My Life." Here comes the first hill now.....