The trend has been developing for a while, but leave it to Xerox to put a nice big punctuation mark on things: the document management and printing company has announced a deal to acquire Affiliated Computer Services for some $6.4 billion in stock and cash. Xerox says the acquisition will enable the company to triple its services revenue to an estimated $10 billion next year, and comes as the company is seeing revenues decline from printer sales and equipment leasing.
“By combining Xerox’s strengths in document technology with ACS’s expertise in managing and automating work processes, we’re creating a new class of solution provider,” said Xerox CEO Ursula M. Burns, in a statement. “A game-changer for Xerox, acquiring ACS helps us expand our business and benefit from stronger revenue and earnings growth.”
ACS employs nearly 75,000 people; its core business surrounds business process outsourcing—things like financial management, human resources, IT, transaction processing—as well as technical support and customer relations; most of its clients are government agencies and multinational corporations.
The ACS acquisition is just the latest in a wave of technology companies buying service-related businesses in order to create new revenue streams and bolster their bottom lines. Last year the world’s number one computer maker Hewlett-Packard took over Electronic Data Systems in a deal worth an estimated $13 billion, and just last well number-two computer maker Dell announced it was taking over Perot Systems for $3.9 billion.
The acquisition is Burn’s first major move since taking over the Xerox CEO role on July 1. Xerox plans to let ACS operate as an independent organization that will be run by ACS’s current CEO Lynn Blodgett; Xerox also plans to leverage some of ACS’s expertise to handle some of the company’s internal operations.
In 1950, Alan Turing asked whether machines can think. Rather than argue over definitions, he turned the question into a party game, where an interrogator trades typed messages with hidden players and tries to work out who is who. Since then, chatbots have gotten so good that they have already fooled humans in modern versions of the test.
So, four researchers from Paris Cité University asked the obvious follow-up question in a new study published in Computers in Human Behavior Reports: can AI at least catch its own kind?
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.