2018 – Fuji Xerox

Japan’s Fujifilm attemps to take over Xerox in a $6.1 billion deal to combine it into their existing joint venture Fuji Xerox. The attempt fails.

Fuji Xerox logo

Kolbus decides to focus on expanding its range of finishing equipment for the packaging market. It sells its perfect binding and book line business to Muller Martini.

Lucky HuaGuang Graphics and Agfa Graphics enter into a strategic alliance in the graphics prepress business. Lucky will manufacture plates and other products for Agfa, using Agfa technology. Both companies set up a joint venture to expand their market share in the Chinese market.

The online print market continues to grow. This graph shows the evolution in Europe, where the growth varies per country with the northern countries taking the lead.

Evolution of online print market in Europe

Version 2 of the XJDF protocol to exchange information between applications and production systems is published.

Ultra Violet (Pantone 18-3838) is the color of the year.


These are some important or remarkable events from 2018:

  • U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meet to discuss the denuclearisation of North Korea.
  • The world’s last male northern white rhinoceros dies in Kenya.
  • The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes strict privacy controls for European citizens.
  • A trade ware breaks out between the U.S. and China.
  • The yellow vests protests in Paris morph into riots, with cars being burned, people getting injured and thousands of arrests. The protests will continue in 2019 and 2020.

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