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Xerox copies bad news
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January 25, 2000: 7:25 a.m. ET
Sees charge, weak first-half earnings as it edges past lowered 4Q estimate
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Xerox Corp. warned investors Tuesday of continued problems and a restructuring charge in the first half of this year as it narrowly beat lowered forecasts for the fourth quarter.
The copier company has been forced to issue repeated warnings in recent quarters. It said it expects to announce a restructuring program and unspecified charge sometime in this quarter, and it didn't predict an end of its current slump until the second half of the year.
"We have definitely turned the corner in resolving our customer administration issues in the United States," said Rick Thoman, the company's president and chief executive. "However, there are some lagging impacts that will continue to affect earnings."
For the fourth quarter, the company had income from continuing operations of $294 million, or 41 cents a diluted share, down more than half from the $615 million, or 84 cents a diluted share, it made in the same period of 1998.
Analysts surveyed by First Call had been looking for 40 cents in the quarter, but that was after a warning on Dec. 10 that it would have problems in the quarter. Before that they were looking for 68 cents a share.
Revenue for the quarter was $5.4 billion, down 6 percent from a year earlier.
For the year, net income fell to $1.4 billion, or $1.96 a diluted share, compared with $1.7 billion, or $2.33 a share, in 1998 before a restructuring charge and a loss from discontinued operations. Including those items, the 1998 results came to net income of $395 million, or 52 cents a share.
Revenue of $19.2 billion in 1999 was off 1 percent from the $19.4 billion in 1998.
In trading Monday, shares of Xerox (XRX) were down 3/8 to 21-3/4. 
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Xerox Corp.
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