How a small photographic paper company became the global synonym for copying documents
Founded in 1906 as Haloid, Xerox transformed from a niche manufacturer of photographic paper into a dominant industrial force. By pioneering the automated photocopier, the company redefined office productivity, eventually becoming so ubiquitous that its name became a verb. Yet, its history is marked by radical pivots and antitrust battles.
The company's trajectory shifted in 1946 when Joseph C. Wilson secured the rights to Chester Carlson’s xerography invention. This process, which utilized dry toner and an electrically charged plate, took over two decades to refine into a commercial machine. The breakthrough arrived in 1959 with the Xerox 914, the first plain-paper photocopier. Its success was immediate, fueled by an innovative advertising campaign that emphasized simplicity, famously featuring a monk named Brother Dominic who used the machine to save years of manual labor.
By the 1960s, Xerox held a near-monopoly on the copier market, but this dominance invited regulatory scrutiny. In 1975, the company settled an antitrust suit with the Federal Trade Commission, which forced it to license its entire patent portfolio to competitors, including Japanese firms. Consequently, Xerox’s U.S. market share plummeted from nearly 100% to under 14% within four years. This forced the company to reinvent itself, leading to a series of acquisitions and divestitures, including the purchase of Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion in 2010 and the later spin-off of Conduent in 2016.
Beyond copiers, Xerox’s influence on modern technology is profound. Its Palo Alto Research Center was a crucible for computing innovations, including the desktop graphical user interface and the computer mouse—concepts that would eventually underpin the success of Apple and Microsoft. Despite these contributions, the company has navigated turbulent waters, including the 2000 resignation of its first outsider CEO, Richard Thoman, and a subsequent turnaround led by Anne M. Mulcahy, who restored profitability by 2002. Today, Xerox continues to evolve, maintaining its presence as a Fortune 500 entity while shifting its focus toward document technology and outsourcing services.
Source: Xerox
