If you still believe that Xerox is in turnaround mode thanks to the “Reinvention”, I have bad news: We are not “reinventing”, we are just rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship. Yet so many employees still parrot corporate buzzwords like:
• "We're repositioning for growth!"
• "IT services will save us!"
• "Adjusted EBITDA is strong!"
“Adjusted EBITDA” is corporate fantasy accounting. It is the financial equivalent of su-king in your belly for a selfie: it hides all the ugly stuff (debt, restructuring, write-offs, bad investments) to make things look better than they really are.
Let's talk ratios - because math doesn't lie:
Our revenue-to-debt ratio is 2.4x (and shrinking). For reference, healthy companies aim for a ratio of 4x or more. Translation? We are running out of financial room to breathe.
Our cost-to-revenue ratio is ~87% (a profitability nightmare). This means that 87 cents of every dollar earned is eaten up by costs. A healthy business should be closer to 70-75%.
Our net profit margin is NEGATIVE 18.5% (Yes, NEGATIVE): Xerox lost $1.3 billion in 9 months on revenues of $7 billion. For reference, Apple = 25%, Microsoft = 36%, IBM = 12%. Xerox? Losing almost 20 cents on the dollar.
Our interest-coverage ratio (ICR) is 0.6x. Healthy companies have 3x+ coverage, meaning they earn 3x more than they pay in interest. Xerox? We can't even cover interest with profits.
Xerox can fudge the numbers all it wants; banks, creditors and markets don't care. They want real cash flow, not accounting tricks.
Hope is not a strategy. Denial is not a business model. And "adjusted EBITDA" is not profit.
See?
There is no magical ‘Reinvention’ propelled change; it is a continuing decline that is accelerating into free fall, rebranded as a strategy.
The takeaway for all of us:
Xerox is not "reinventing" itself into an IT powerhouse.
Layoffs will continue even faster and to an even greater extent.
If you still think we are fine, read the SEC filings. Then read them again.