There will be no unplanned impact on Lexmark International Group Inc’s earnings when its printer agreement with IBM Corp ends on March 27, Lexmark told Reuters. The printer company said sales are still projected to grow at 15% per annum and operating profit to grow at 20%. Revenue from IBM is seen to drop to under 10% of Lexmark’s total sales in 1996 from about 20% in 1995 including sales from keyboards. When the agreement with IBM ends, IBM becomes Lexmark’s potential competitor in desktop, inkjet and dot matrix printers and Lexmark will not be able to put IBM’s logo on its printers, though it has already phased in its own branding. Forgiving Lexmark will still seek opportunities to work with IBM.
