Chinese companies have yet to sate their appetites for foreign cuisine. Nor are their tastes limited to the haute. Yesterday came news that Lexmark, the US maker of printers and business software, will sell itself to a consortium of Chinese companies. The buyers, including Shenzhen listed Apex Technology and a venture capital arm of Hong Kong listed Legend Holdings, will pay $3.6bn in cash, a 17 per cent premium to the previous close.
Lexmark is not junk food but is the sort of meal that requires time in the microwave to be palatable. Its shares have drifted sideways for a decade. With revenues of $3.5bn, it has less than 5 per cent of a market that it estimates at $68bn.
And it plays in an industry where size matters. Hewlett-Packard has printer sales nearly 6 times as large. Its $3.5bn research and development budget equals Lexmark’s top line and was more than 10 times the $330m the smaller company could afford last year.
