01732 759725 12 BULLETIN Ricoh acquires Albyco Ricoh’s production print customers are set to benefit from a greater range of finishing capabilities, following the acquisition of Albyco, a prominent player in the graphics business. The move is part of Ricoh’s wider growth strategy, positioning the company as a leader in the ever-evolving print and graphics industry. Albyco customers will have ready access to Ricoh’s portfolio of graphic communications solutions. For Ricoh, the acquisition further supports its continued focus on the graphic communications market in line with evolving customer needs, while further cementing its position in this space. The agreement will see Ricoh welcome Albyco’s workforce to the business, complementing existing expertise and capabilities. Albyco’s Managing Director, Jos van Uum, will remain in his current role and continue to grow Albyco’s business. Customers can expect continued support and an expanded range of solutions as Ricoh integrates Albyco's capabilities into its portfolio. Eef de Ridder, Vice President Graphic Communications Group, said: “This exciting acquisition is a move that reinforces our dedication to driving innovation in the print industry. We are seeing growing demand for top-tier finishing capabilities in wide-format and inkjet/toner printing at a commercial scale and rising interest from clients seeking endto-end integrated solutions. Albyco's strong reputation and proven track record in the graphic communications business makes it an excellent addition to the Ricoh family, further strengthening our collective capabilities.” www.ricoh-europe.com Threats hidden in plain sight Research has revealed that 33% of UK small businesses have no IT security measures in place to cover printers, despite 16% admitting to being impacted by a printer security breach. The pan-European research commissioned by Sharp, surveyed 5,770 professionals responsible for purchasing IT, on confidence in IT security capabilities and barriers to IT security investment over the next 12 months. Increased security threats such as phishing or ransomware attacks are a very real concern for the UK’s SMEs. Particularly as the exploitation of new vulnerabilities make networked devices, such as MFPs and printers, prime targets for IT security breaches. Yet, despite SMEs admitting to increased concerns surrounding IT security risks, the research found that less than a quarter of SMEs educate their employees about scanner (23%) and printer (23%) IT security. Colin Blumenthal, Vice President, IT Services at Sharp Europe, said: “Big stories about cybercrimes enabled by complex security technology earn the most media attention, it’s the more everyday business functions that can be the issue in SMEs. More often than not, dayto-day security essentials and potential weak spots such as printers are overlooked in their document, device, and network security. These are threats hidden in plain sight.” www.sharp.co.uk HPE to buy Juniper Networks HPE and Juniper Networks have announced that the companies have entered a definitive agreement under which HPE will acquire Juniper in an all-cash transaction for $40.00 per share, representing an equity value of approximately $14 billion. The acquisition is expected to double HPE’s networking business, creating a new networking leader with a comprehensive portfolio that presents customers and partners with a compelling new choice to drive business value. The explosion of AI and hybrid clouddriven business is accelerating demand for secure, unified technology solutions that connect, protect, and analyse companies’ data from edge to cloud. These trends, and AI specifically, will continue to be the most disruptive workloads for companies, and HPE has been aligning its portfolio to capitalise on these substantial IT trends with networking as a critical connective component. Combining both companies’ complementary portfolios supercharges HPE’s edge-to-cloud strategy with an ability to lead in an AI-native environment based on a foundational cloud-native architecture. Together, HPE and Juniper will provide customers of all sizes with a complete, secure portfolio that enables the networking architecture necessary to manage and simplify their expanding and increasingly complex connectivity needs. Leveraging industry-leading AI, the combined company is expected to create better user and operator experiences, benefitting customers’ highperformance networks and cloud data centres. www.hpe.com Konica Minolta extends partnership with Production Print Direct Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) has extended its partnership with Production Print Direct to include its range of digital label and packaging press solutions. Offering the enhanced range of industrial print solutions reflects the Burnley-based company’s commitment to supporting its customers across the north of England and Scotland, as commercial printers look to diversify and enhance their market offering. Mike Ashforth, Production Print Direct’s Managing Director said: “We celebrated our first decade of business in April this year and we are proud to deliver a one-to-one service, with a dedicated service team and the flexibility to act as soon as our customers need assistance or support. We are very excited to be extending our winning partnership with Konica Minolta and to be supporting our existing and new customers with their label production needs.” www.ppdirect.co.uk • www.konicaminolta.co.uk Business Design Centre · London · 17 September 2024 ICT · MANAGED IT · MOBILE · PRINT 24 (l-r) Jos van Uum, Managing Director, Albyco and Eef de Ridder, Vice-President, Graphic Communications Group, Ricoh Europe
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