Xerox confident with profit forecast for 2007

OFFICE equipment manufacturer Xerox has reported a 53% year-on-year fall in third-quarter earnings but has increased its profit forecast for the full year.

The Connecticut-headquartered printer and photocopier maker, which cut around 900 jobs from its Irish workforce of 1,700 earlier this year, said earnings were down on the same quarter last year mainly due to a once-off tax gain of $448 million (€314m), boosting profits in the third quarter of last year.

Net income for the three months to the end of September was down — year-on-year — from $536m (€765m) to $254m (€363m), but sales rose by 12%, annually, to $4.3 billion (€6.1bn).