Jacobson joined the New York-headquartered firm's 12-strong team of executive partners who are not employees of Siris, but "provide invaluable sourcing and due diligence assistance to the Siris team and help direct strategic and operational improvements post-investment”.
While the bulk of the Siris’ current acquisitions include companies in the software, telecoms and digital security sectors, the firm inked a $1.7bn deal for EFI April. The sale is expected to complete in Q3.
While there was no reference to EFI in the Siris statement, PrintWeek understands that Jacobson has supported the Siris team working on the EFI acquisition.
Jacobson will work with the Executive Partner team to evaluate potential investment opportunities as the company looks to grow its portfolio.
“Jeff is a highly accomplished leader with a proven track record of identifying and driving operational and strategic improvements in industrial printing and technology businesses,” said Siris co-founder Frank Baker. “We are confident that Jeff will be a valuable addition to our Executive Partner team.”
Jacobson served at Xerox for six years, joining as president of the global graphic communications branch of the manufacturer in 2012. After holding a number of senior exective roles at the company, he became the chief executive in January 2017 when the business split into two.
Along with five other directors, he resigned from Xerox in May 2018 amid a bitter dispute with activist investors Darwin Deason and Carl Icahn, who battled to block the proposed takeover of Xerox by Fujifilm. Ultimately Deason and Icahn won, and Jacobson stepped down as CEO.
Prior to joining Xerox he was chief executive of Presstek, and before that he ran Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group and was chief executive of Kodak Polychrome Graphics prior to that.
