(Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn said on Tuesday Xerox Corp (>> Xerox Corp) "desperately" needed new leadership, arguing that the printer manufacturer was slow to launch new products and grow revenue.

Icahn's remarks, in an open letter to Xerox shareholders, come a day after he named four nominees to the company's board of directors.

The nominations followed the resignation of Jonathan Christodoro, whom Icahn placed on Xerox's board last June. Christodoro had a difference of opinion with the board.

On Monday, Xerox backed its yearly earnings forecast and highlighted the 30 percent increase in its stock price this year as a sign of investor confidence.

"To be clear, the primary reason Xerox stock is up 30 percent year-to-date is the Conduent spin-off that I spent over a year fighting for," Icahn said in the letter. http://bit.ly/2APy8a5

Xerox split itself in two last year, spinning off its business process outsourcing unit into Conduent Inc (>> Conduent Inc).

(Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)

Stocks treated in this article : Conduent Inc, Xerox Corp