Darwin Deason

Darwin Deason (born 1940) is an American billionaire businessman and political donor. He founded Affiliated Computer Services in 1988, and sold it to Xerox for $6.4 billion in 2010, becoming Xerox' largest individual shareholder (6%, as of 2016).[2]

Darwin Deason
Born1940 (age 80–81)
Rogers, Arkansas, United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationBusinessman
Net worthUS$1.3 billion[1] (2018)
Spouse(s)
Katerina Panos
​
​
(m. 2008; div. 2019)​
Children3

Career

Deason grew up on a farm near Rogers, Arkansas.[3] He moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma after graduating from high school, and he got a job at Gulf Oil.[3] Deason got a job for a data processing company, and eventually took control of a struggling Dallas company that he renamed MTech.[4] After selling MTech, Deason founded Affiliated Computer Services in 1988.[4] ACS became one of the first companies to outsource office work to places outside of the United States.[3] The company went public in 1994.[3] Deason retired as CEO of the company in 1999, but remained chairman.[3]

In 2007, Deason attempted to buy control of ACS with the help of Cerberus Capital Management, but the deal collapsed and members of the A.C.S. board resigned in protest.[5] In 2009, Deason negotiated a deal to sell A.C.S. to Xerox.[5][6] Shareholders sued Deason due to the premium that Deason received in the deal, but the sale went through in 2010.[4]

In October 2016, Darwin Deason sued Xerox to block a restructuring plan that would reverse the $6.2 billion takeover of ACS, arguing the deal would lead his assets to live off low-growth, unattractive assets, whereas his deal with Xerox implied getting a share of Xerox' investment-grade business. Xerox has announced its plan to split its operations into copier and printers on one end, and business process outsourcing on the other (to become Conduent Inc).[7] By the end of October 2016, the feud was settled: Darwin Deason got 180,000 shares of Xerox's preferred stock and 120,000 preferred shares of Conduent.[2]

Political activity

Deason and his family donated $250,000 to support Rick Perry's 2012 presidential candidacy.[8]

In October 2015, Darwin Deason backed Ted Cruz for the 2016 campaign[9]

Deason also donated $5 million to support Perry's 2016 presidential candidacy.[10] After Perry dropped out of the race, Deason asked for his money back.[10] Deason's son, Doug Deason is a member of the Koch Brothers political network.[11]

During the 2017 attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Doug Deason told Senator Mitch McConnell and other senior Republicans that they would not make political contributions if Congress did not reduce taxes and repeal the Affordable Care Act.[12]

Between 2017 and June 30, 2019, Deason donated $1 million to the America First Policies-tied America First Action super PAC.[13]

References
  1. "Forbes Profile: Darwin Deason". Forbes. Real Time Net Worth. Online: updated every 24-hour market cycle. [Forbes real time net worths] are calculated from locked in stock prices and exchange rates from around the globe.... as well as the vetting of personal balance sheets...CS1 maint: others (link) CS1 maint: location (link)
  2. Venugopal, Aishwarya (2016-10-31). "Xerox settles with large investor over spin-off". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2018-12-19. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  3. Bandler, James; Forelle, Charles (2006-12-30). "Living Large and Bouncing Back". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  4. Kroll, Luisa (7 May 2012). "Billionaire Darwin Deason Spends 'Absolutely Foolish Money' On His 205-Foot Mega-Yacht And Loves Every Moment". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  5. Solomon, Steven Davidoff (29 September 2009). "Behind the Gambit in the A.C.S.-Xerox Deal". New York Times. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  6. Corkery, Michael (28 September 2009). "Xerox-ACS: A Five Year M&A Odyssey and One Big Pay Day". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  7. Larson, Erik (14 October 2016). "Xerox Sued by Darwin Deason Over Plan to Split Core Business". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  8. Ballhaus, Rebecca (17 September 2015). "Perry Exit Leaves Donors Sizing Up Other Republican Candidates". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  9. Riddell, Kelly (26 October 2015). "Ted Cruz scores Texas billionaire's support in presidential run". The Washington Times. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  10. Cheney, Kyle (15 September 2015). "Rick Perry megadonor wants his $5 million back". Politico. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  11. Lerner, Adam B. (3 February 2015). "Top Koch donors speak out publicly". Politico. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  12. Stolberg, Sheryl Gay; Pear, Robert (23 September 2017). "Why the Latest Health Bill Is Teetering: It Might Not Work". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
  13. Kotch, Alex (2020-01-02). "Some of America's Biggest Corporations Help Finance Anti-Impeachment Ads". PR Watch. Archived from the original on 2020-01-12. Retrieved 2020-01-12.
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