79 歲的激進投資者卡爾?伊坎又成功分拆了一家公司，這一次是施樂（Xerox），據悉施樂將被分拆成兩部分，伊坎同時贏得了3個董事會席位。

伊坎針對上市公司的行動向來大手筆，包括分拆惠普、將杜邦和陶氏化學先合并后再次分拆，并曾經還試圖分拆美國鋁業。伊坎的下一個目標很可能是 AIG，GE 正在迅速甩賣資產，以避免成為類似的目標。也許 IBM 也有類似的擔憂。

陶氏化學的 CEO 安德魯?利韋里斯曾經說過，一家股權分散的公眾公司也許很難擺脫這樣的厄運。當然，如果這家公司是谷歌母公司 Alphabet 或者亞馬遜，也許會有例外。

這樣的結果對于施樂富有激情的 CEO 厄休拉?彭斯來說也許是傷感的，她不得不將 2009年親手購入的服務業務進行剝離，而服務業務曾被給予拯救施樂的厚望。施樂以生產打印機聞名于世，并且發明了早期的個人電腦，蘋果和微軟的圖形操作系統都是“借鑒”自施樂。

這樣的分拆對短期投資者有利，但是對經濟卻未必，雖然惠普CEO 梅格?惠特曼在分拆后表示聚焦主營業務對公司有好處，但是對于科技公司，將硬件和服務結合顯然會產生協同作用，戴爾和 EMC 就在走一條這樣的與惠普和施樂相反的路，而他們都是私有公司。（財富中文網）

Another victory for 79-year-old Carl Icahn yesterday, forcing Xerox to split itself into two parts, and getting three board seats in the bargain. The Xerox move follows the split by Hewlett-Packard, a planned split by Alcoa, and the merger-then-split of DuPont and Dow. In Icahn’s crosshairs is insurer AIG. GE is selling off pieces as fast as it can to stay ahead of the activists. And IBM must be wondering when its moment is coming. As Dow CEO Andrew Liveris said in this space Tuesday, “the fate of the publicly-owned, diversified company may well be doomed.” Unless, of course, the company happens to be named Alphabet or Amazon.

It’s a sad outcome for energetic Xerox XRX 5.63% CEO Ursula Burns, who bought the services business she’s now spinning off in 2009, with hopes it would save her company. Xerox is famous for its office copiers, and also for having invented, then fumbled, the early personal computer.

As we’ve reported before, this disassembling of big companies may boost returns for short-term investors, but is it good for the economy? When I interviewed her last November after her split, Meg Whitman argued there are big benefits to being able to “focus, focus, focus, focus” on a narrower set of products. But there’s also benefit from being able to combine sales of hardware and services – which is why Dell and EMC are moving in the opposite direction from HP and Xerox, but doing it in the private markets where activists can’t prey.

The only clear winners in all of this are the investment bankers, who are just as happy to split up companies as combine them, and who no doubt are already looking for the next opportunity to recombine the pieces of this shattered corporate landscape.

Meanwhile, if you missed the GOP debate last night, no worries. Donald Trump missed it, too, and that worked out just fine for him. A check of Google searches shows more people looking for him than all the other candidates combined.