Xerox Corporation Ltd. is an American multinational document management corporation that produces and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photocopiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, though its largest population of employees is based around Rochester, New York, the area in which the company was founded. On September 28, 2009, Xerox announced the intended acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion. The deal closed on February 8, 2010.
Researchers at Xerox and its Palo Alto Research Center invented several important elements of personal computing, such as the desktop metaphor GUI, the computer mouse and desktop computing. These features were frowned upon by the then board of directors, who ordered the Xerox engineers to share them with Apple technicians. The features were taken on by Apple and, later, Microsoft. Partly thanks to these features, these two firms would then go on to duopolize the personal computing world.
Xerox holds a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales.
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