Last November, when details were first trickling in on the unusual Xerox Holdings plan to bid for the much-larger HP Inc., Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi speculated that the real goal of the offer might have been to goad HP to turn around and buy Xerox. That approach, he wrote in a research note at the time, made “a lot more financial sense” given that HP’s market cap is so much bigger—now $34 billion for HP versus $7.7 billion for Xerox.

A lot has happened since Xerox (ticker: XRX) first offered $22 a share in cash and...