Etan Rozin

Speculation over Scitex sale According to reports in the Israeli business press Scitex痴 holding company IDB has received an offer for the ink-jet printing specialist. A report in themarker.com claims that a non-Israeli investor is after Scitex Digital Printing (SDP), the firm痴 high-speed ink-jet over printer and press manufacturer.
Sources close to Scitex Digital Printing suggested that EFI or Xerox might be the firms making the offer. Both have a relationship with the firm, EFI to develop a front-end to drive its VersaMark digital colour press and Xerox to sell the VersaMark. No one from Scitex or IDB were available for comment.
There are changes at IDB that mean it is considering the options for Scitex, which has been singled out by IDB痴 recently appointed management as part of its cost-cutting measures. IDB holds almost 40% of Scitex痴 stock through its divisions Clal Industries & Investments and Discount Investment Corporation. Scitex・financial performance, particularly in its wide-format and ink-jet technology division Scitex Vision, has been poor.
SDP has been the group痴 cash cow. Write-downs on its holding in Creo have also been hitting its parent痴 profits, although Scitex recently sold half its remaining share of Creo leaving it with 6.6% of the pre-press giant. Scitex changed top management following the revamp at IDB. SDP president and chief executive Nachum Shamir now fills that role at Scitex as well having replaced Yeoshua Agassi last week. IDB staff have also taken up three positions on Scitex痴 board, including Discount Investment chief executive Ami Erel replacing former Clal chief executive Meir Shannie as chairman.

Creo Inc. announced on June 5th 2003 that Scitex Corporation Ltd. sold 3 million common shares of Creo today through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) in an arranged sale to various financial institutions. Scitex continues to hold 3.25 million of the original 13.25 million Creo shares acquired in April 2000 in exchange for its digital preprint and print-on-demand assets.
In November 2001, Scitex divested 7.0 million shares. The remaining Scitex shareholding of 3.25 million common shares represents approximately 6.5 percent of the outstanding Creo shares.

Although not posted yet on their web site, we at ExScite have heard that Creo has appointed a new VP of sales.
Patrick Morrisey, straight from a 3 month engagement as Sales director of Great lakes region is now in charge.

Vancouver, BC, Canada – Creo Inc. announces that Creo Middle East and Africa is consolidating its activities with those of Creo Europe, effective April 1, 2003. By combining the two organizations, Creo can make greater use of the existing infrastructure of Creo Europe in Waterloo, Belgium. To reflect this change, the operation has been renamed Creo EMEA S.A. The subsidiary will distribute Creo solutions throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
“We will be able to apply the well-developed methodology we have in our Waterloo facilities,” explains Alon Lumbroso, managing director, Creo EMEA. “We also look forward to better sharing of knowledge between the regions.” The change is not expected to impact the total number of employees, and cost savings are expected to balance the minor costs of consolidation.

XMPie, a Scitex spin-off founded in 2000 by the ExScite’s Jacob Aizikowitz, Israel Roth, and Reuven Sherwin. XMPie’s products enable combining electronic and print ad campaign management software
The company main share holders Scitex (19.4%) and Jerusalem Venture Partners have invested $4M so far and a $5-7M round is underway. The company has 26 employees in Netanya and 7 in the US.
In an interview with Globes, Jacob Aizikowitz (in the picture) said: “Toward the end of my time at Scitex, everyone was talking about personalized digital printing. … about ‘external personalization’, i.e. personalized content via the Internet for each surfer and customer, Internet people talk about personalization, and print people talk about personalizati

“We are excited to join forces with the Printcafe team to bring the most comprehensive procurement to production offerings to the printing industry,” said EFI CEO Guy Gecht. “Our global leadership in printing workflow and Printcafe’s dominance in print supply chain management will offer both printers and their customers powerful end-to-end solutions to maximize their efficiency and profitability.”

“Our combination with EFI will expand our markets by offering integrated management software solutions for both our print buyer and printer clients. This will also improve the depth of our printer solutions on the shop floor and in the back office. EFI’s global reputation in digital printing and their emphasis on open standards architecture will provide both our existing customers and new customers with accessible solutions to help them grow their businesses,” said Marc Olin, President and CEO of Printcafe.

The acquisition fits with EFI’s strategy of expanding its software product offerings for the professional printing market. With the convergence of traditional and digital printing, the combination of EFI’s imaging and workflow solutions with Printcafe’s enterprise management software will help to accelerate the adoption of digital printing management throughout the process from procurement to production.

The acquisition of Printcafe will result in a one-time charge to EFI in the quarter the transaction closes for certain acquisition-related expenses. EFI will provide further information during its earnings conference call in April.

The merger agreement provides each Printcafe stockholder with the right to elect whether to receive the merger consideration in cash or shares of EFI’s common stock. Following completion of the merger, EFI plans to buy back approximately the number of shares of its common stock issued in connection with the merger.

The merger agreement contains customary conditions to closing and may be terminated by each party under certain conditions, including in connection with a superior proposal for Printcafe. The transaction must be approved by Printcafe’s stockholders and is expected to close in the second calendar quarter of 2003.