As most of you know, RICOH acquired IKON in 2009. That acquisition was not particularly good news for Canon, because IKON was, prior to its acquisition by RICOH, a significant distributor of Canon equipment (at least that was the case in the U.S. market).
In my opinion, Canon’s move to acquire OCE was, in part, a response to RICOH’s acquisition of IKON. The merger of Canon and OCE is a particularly powerful combination, in my oh-so-humble opinion.
In the “large-format” (or wide-format) equipment market space – and, here, I’m referring to higher-production-model multifunction (scan-print-plot-copy) systems, KIP has a very strong market position in the U.S. (behind OCE, but, I think, ahead of Xerox). In my opinion, the Canon/OCE combination could negatively affect KIP’s presence and market share; maybe not in the short term, but over time.
Will KIP seek shelter? What are the chances that RICOH or XEROX or hmmm, HP, will seek to acquire KIP?
Reprographics 101 
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