Breaking news: Canon just announced it would but Oce, the Dutch Copier and Printer company, in a $1.1 billion deal.

That’s a very significant merger in Xerox’s traditional market.

Interesting – and divergent – path from Xerox, who preferred to take over ACS, which embodies its “new business” (business process outsourcing) rather than its traditional line of products, which are in the middle of very fierce competition.

Just a few days ago, HP decided to follow yet another route by buying 3COM, to consolidate its server business (a few years after its EDS acquisition, of course).

Interesting times…