Following the news that Xerox Holdings Corporation is raising its offer to US$24 per share to acquire HP;

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“Following months of HP’s repeated rejections of any buy-out offers, Xerox has announced raising its takeover offer in a new move to lure HP shareholders. The new offer of US$24 per share totals the acquisition at around US$35bn, and Xerox has also indicated towards launching the tender offer for the acquisition in March 2020.

“HP has not yet commented on Xerox’s latest move but gave indications that it will wait until its quarterly earnings results are released, which is likely to be on 24 February 2020. Within this time, HP may work on strategies to create value for its shareholders and showcase that value can be created without a takeover. Share buybacks may also be on the cards.

“It would be interesting to see if the U$24 per share price is high enough to entice HP shareholders to take the deal, or whether Xerox will be forced to consider further raising the takeover offer.”