XRX Xerox Holdings Corporation

By Cara Lombardo 

Xerox Holdings Corp. is preparing to nominate as many as 11 directors to HP Inc.'s board, according to people familiar with matter, in an aggressive move to push a $33 billion unsolicited takeover bid for the maker of computers and printers.

Xerox in recent weeks bought a small HP stake, which gives it the right to nominate directors for elections to be held at the company's annual meeting this summer, the people said. The deadline for nominations to HP's 11-person board is Friday. Xerox could still decide to not follow through with the nominations.

Xerox in November offered to buy its much larger rival for $22 a share in cash and stock. HP rejected the bid as too low and questioned Xerox's ability to finance it. Xerox earlier this month said it had secured up to $24 billion in debt financing; in response, HP reiterated that the bid was too low.

Xerox hopes the move will put pressure on HP to negotiate a deal, which it so far has refused to do. Xerox may ultimately take its bid directly to HP shareholders in the form of a tender offer, some of the people said. Should there be a vote on the nominees, it could serve as a referendum on the proposed deal and install a slate of directors more favorable to a takeover.

Corrie Driebusch contributed to this article.

Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 21, 2020 22:12 ET (03:12 GMT)

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