Industrial digital color inkjet web presses such as Oce's 28080 now becomes part of Canons' Oce offerings. Canon will acquire its European competitor Oce in a stock purchase, creating a global digital printing equipment and services giant that reshapes the competitive landscape against  Xerox and HP. The agreement was announced in a press release press release by Océ just after midnight. 

The offer price of € 8.60 per share totals € 730 million, 70% over Océ Friday closing price and 137%  above  s average share price over the last year.

 

Canon and Océ say they aim to create the overall No. 1 presence in the printing industry. The merger creates a natural blend  of the two firms' digital printing platforms:  Oce is strong in high speed toner and inkjet digital color presses, and in wide-format  inkjet printers, and has a large presence in the U.S. for managed print services through Océ Business Services, the former Archer Management Services acquired in 1997. Canon is strong on mid-range color offerings, but has not developed higher speed color digital presses that can compete with models like Xerox's iGen4, Kodak NexPress 3000 or HP Indigo digital color web presses. Canon also has not developed the next generation inkjet web presses, such as  HP's T300 industrial inkjet web, Infoprint 5000 or Kodak Prosper press line based on its Stream inkjet technology.