Xerox Corp, one of the ultimate go-go stocks of the 1970s, has now been going nowhere for so long that it is a painfully obvious takeover-break-up candidate – followers of the company don’t like its major diversification into financial services and think the two parts should go their separate ways: Hanson Plc has now joined the list of predators being mooted for a company whose parts are almost certainly worth a lot more than the whole is currently valued at, and Sir James Goldsmith’s name is also in the frame, perhaps in partnership with Hanson; just one question – are there any bits of Xerox that Hanson would actually want to keep?
