CEO Thoman Says Xerox is Poised for 'New Era of Success'.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 1999--

"...A period when we'll deliver profitable revenue growth and significantly improved shareholder value..."

Xerox Corporation's (NYSE: XRX) new chief executive officer, Rick Thoman, told shareholders at the company's Annual Meeting today that Xerox is "poised on the threshold of another period of great success" -- a period he said would produce profitable revenue growth and significantly improved shareholder value.

Thoman, who became CEO just six weeks ago, credited his predecessor, Paul A. Allaire, with "reinventing" Xerox during the 1990s, transforming the company from a "stand-alone, black-and-white analog copier company ... (to) the digital, color, networked company," adding that "we're rapidly becoming a solutions company as well."

Earlier this year, Thoman noted, Xerox organized itself under two distinct business models: industry solutions and general markets.

"The industry solutions organization pulls together people and processes, hardware and software, network integration capabilities and a range of other services to deliver the tailored solutions our larger customers now demand," he said.

The General Markets Organization, he said, "creates a more cohesive approach for all our channels resources: retail superstores; value-added resellers; dealers, agents and concessionaires; e-commerce and telebusiness capabilities.

"With this twin push into high-end solutions and general markets, Xerox is poised on the threshold of another era of great success," the Xerox CEO said, "and a period when we'll deliver profitable revenue growth and significantly improved shareholder value."

Customers also increasingly look to Xerox for knowledge-sharing solutions, he said. "Every business conversation is supported by documents. And documents are the primary tool for sharing knowledge, within a workgroup, between virtual teams, among operating units and customers around the world. The challenge around knowledge sharing all play to our strengths," he said.

Just this week, he noted, Xerox and Microsoft announced a joint technology and market-development initiative designed to accelerate and simplify knowledge sharing in the office, based on the Microsoft Windows NT Embedded operating systems and Microsoft Exchange Server, combined with the powerful capabilities of Xerox' Document Centre family of digital products.

In addition, Thoman noted that in light of the company's strong financial performance, earlier this year the Board of Directors had declared an 11 percent increase in the quarterly cash dividend on Xerox common stock and approved a two-for-one stock split. It was the fourth consecutive annual double-digit dividend increase and the second stock split in the last three years.

Also at the annual meeting, shareholders approved the election of 16 members of the Xerox Board of Directors: Paul A. Allaire, William F. Buehler, B.R. Inman, Antonia Ax:son Johnson, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Yotaro Kobayashi, Hilmar Kopper, Ralph S. Larsen, George J. Mitchell, N.J. Nicholas Jr., John E. Pepper, Barry D. Romeril, Patricia F. Russo, Martha R. Seger, Thomas C. Theobald and G. Richard Thoman.

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