Xerox falls short on revenue, raises buybacks

(Reuters) - Xerox Corp, engaged in a tense standoff with Fujifilm Holdings Corp over an aborted merger, missed analysts' estimates for quarterly revenue on Tuesday, as corporates cut back spending on printers and photocopiers.

In the first full quarter under new management backed by activist investors Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, the U.S. photocopier raised its 2018 share repurchase target to $700 million from $500 million and reported higher cash flow.

Xerox - faced with declining demand for office printing equipment and rising popularity of smartphones that has reduced the need to print - agreed in January to a $6.1 billion merger with Fuji Xerox, its 56-year-old joint venture with Fujifilm.

But the complex deal ran into strong opposition from Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason and in May the photocopier pioneer scrapped the merger and handed management control to the activist investors.

Fujifilm, which was to take a majority stake in the combined company as part of the deal, sued Xerox. Last week, Fujifilm won an appeal that could give the Japanese company leverage to bring Xerox management back to the negotiating table.

Net income attributable to Xerox fell to $89 million, or 34 cents per share, in the third-quarter ended Sept. 30, from $179 million, or 68 cents per share, a year earlier, hurt by higher taxes.

Excluding items, the Norwalk, Connecticut-based company reported earnings of 85 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 78 cents, according to Refinitiv data.

Total revenue fell 5.8 percent to $2.35 billion, missing the average analyst estimate of $2.42 billion.

(Reporting by Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)