TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp said on Thursday it may have no choice but to give up on a $6.1 billion merger with Xerox Corp if there is no progress in talks with the U.S. firm's new board for about half a year.
"I don't have a specific deadline in mind, but it should normally be from several months to six months. If we have nothing by then, it can't be helped," Chief Executive Shigetaka Komori said in his first media session since the photocopier company scrapped their merger deal.
A spokeswoman later clarified this meant Fujifilm could end merger talks.
The two companies in January agreed to a complex deal that would merge Xerox into their 56-year-old Asia joint venture Fuji Xerox, which Fujifilm would control with a 50.1 percent stake.
But Xerox scrapped the deal last month in a settlement with activist investors Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, who opposed the takeover by Fujifilm saying it undervalued the U.S. company.
Icahn and Deason, who together own about 15 percent of Xerox, had said they would consider an all-cash bid of at least $40 per share.
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Fujifilm said the previously agreed deal valued Xerox at $8.6 billion, or an 8 percent premium over the average Xerox stock price of $29.7 per share over a month before the deal was announced.
Komori said Fujifilm is "not opposed to considering any new proposal from the new Xerox board if it's beneficial for both firms," but the $40 per share sought by Icahn and Deason is "too high".
(Reporting by Makiko YamazakiEditing by Christopher Cushing)