Xerox CEO Ursula Burns has made a bold bid for services company ACS. Photo: Xerox.

Xerox's new CEO bets big on services. Can she convince investors she made the right move?

Ursula Burns calls less than 30 minutes after the markets close on the most tumultuous trading day in Xerox (XRX) history, and she sounds, well, energized. Not quite 100 days into the CEO job, on Monday she launched the biggest acquisition bid in the company's history and survived a 15% drop in its stock price on record volume. And she's still standing.

"I was positively surprised that it wasn't as bad as it could be," she says, adding that she's ready to continue explaining the deal to Wall Street. "Exciting times."

Investors are understandably less sanguine than Burns. Her $5.7 billion cash and stock offer for outsourcing giant Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) would put $3 billion in debt onto the books, and more than double Xerox's employee headcount from 54,00 to 128,000. This, when investors had been expecting nice, safe stock buybacks. More

The Interact S605, Lexmark's new high-end home office inkjet, comes with a touchscreen. Image: Lexmark

In this era of Kindle books, text messages and Facebook photos, printed information is taking it on the chin – and perhaps no company has been hit harder than Lexmark. The Kentucky-based printer company is one of the worst performing stocks in the hardware sector this year, down about 30%.

But Lexmark (LXK) CEO Paul Curlander hopes a new line of printers will help him climb off the canvas.

The eight new machines for small and medium-sized businesses, which Lexmark is launching today, sport eco-friendly features designed to conserve paper and ink. Some have touchscreens. And they should get more attention than usual, thanks to expanded distribution deals Lexmark signed earlier this year with retailers like Staples (SPLS), Office Depot (ODP) and OfficeMax (OMX). More

For the second time in as many years, Apple Inc. (AAPL) is No. 1 on Fortune Magazine's list of the World's Most Admired Companies.

"It's been a rocky year for Apple," writes Alyssa Abkowitz. "CEO Steve Jobs' health made headlines, and critics said Cupertino wasn't being open enough about it. But customers remained loyal to the brand that made white ear buds cool. As much of the computer industry struggled, Apple shipped 22.7 million iPods during its first quarter (up 3 percent from last year), 2.5 million Macs (up 9 percent), and 4.4 million iPhones. No wonder Apple tops our Most Admired list for the second year in a row." (link)

In the nine key attributes used to rank the companies, Apple got top marks (1 out of 12) for innovation, people management and quality of products/services. It got lower marks (5 out of 12) for social responsibility and global competitiveness.

Curiously, when judged by its peers (i.e. other companies in the computer industry), Apple came in No. 2 after Xerox (XRX) and above Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).

In the broader list of most admired companies in any industry — judged by companies both inside and outside the computer field — HP came in No. 30 and Xerox didn't make the cut.

To see the full list, click here.

When is great not good enough? When you're Hewlett-Packard's printing group.

A few years ago, the $28 billion business, headed by veteran Vyomesh Joshi, was the goose that kept laying golden eggs. It supplied most of the company's profit while the PC group lost money and the corporate technology group struggled. Now new leadership and smart acquisitions have fixed the PC and corporate businesses, and printer sales are showing signs of weakness. More

HP CEO Mark Hurd is taking a risk by bidding for troubled services player EDS. Image: HP

Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd has built a world-class reputation as a cost-cutting turnaround artist, and he's risking it all with a smart bid for technology services giant Electronic Data Systems.

HP (HPQ) announced Tuesday that it would pay $13.9 billion in cash for Texas-based EDS (EDS), which manages technology projects for a range of large clients. If HP does it right, buying EDS is the business equivalent of a triple-play. In one fell swoop HP is more than doubling the revenue of its services arm, mounting a more serious threat to IBM (IBM), and shutting down a distribution channel for other competitors. More

Xerox technology chief Sophie Vandebroek is placing bets on technologies to spur growth. Image: Xerox

Xerox (XRX) PARC has come a long way. A generation ago, the Palo Alto Research Center famously developed many of the technologies that led to modern PCs from folks like Apple (AAPL) and Dell (DELL), but never got them beyond the lab. Today the unit is determined to get its inventions out of the lab, even if it means sacrificing secrecy.

To underscore that point, the company's normally secretive Silicon Valley researchers and their colleagues from around the world held an open house this week to show off surprising projects they're developing. Among them: A blood scanner that uses a twist on laser printing technology to spot rogue cells, a type of paper that can be erased by ultraviolet light and reused, and a new hybrid plastic that's partly made of corn and grass. More