Postal workers have criticized Staples for years for operating “ mini post offices” in dozens of stores. It’s bad for workers and bad for consumers.” “Staples is an anti-worker corporation, and we don’t want to see its reach expanded,” said the postal union’s President Mark Dimondstein. The union called on the FTC and the Justice Department to block the merger. The deal is strongly opposed by members of the American Postal Workers Union, who say it would lead to higher prices for consumers and layoffs for employees. In premarket trading on Wednesday, Staples slipped about 2% while Office Depot climbed over 6%. Earlier in the week, investors cheered rumors that a deal was close. Staples said the talks that produced this deal began in September.Ī deal was pushed by Starboard Value, an activist investor that owns a stake in both companies. The government scuttled a previous merger attempt between Staples and Office Depot in 1996, but approved the Office Depot and OfficeMax deal more recently. The purchase announced Wednesday would unite the three brands, but it still must be approved by regulators. “We have a well-developed copy and print operation … (and) we are now selling over a million” individual items online, he said, and Office Depot touted its furniture business. “Next year, we’ll be pushing to 50% of our sales are not office supplies anymore,” said Sargent. It will also continue to offer more than the traditional paper and printer ink. News Sports SFBJ Life Opinion Obituaries E-Edition Legals. Staples will “better optimize our retail footprint (and) minimize redundancy” - business language that usually means more store closings and layoffs, although management did not address the scope of potential cuts. In the meantime, Staples and Office Depot each plan to close stores this year. The struggling office supply retailer said the merger will mean cost savings of about $1 billion per year. It currently has upwards of 1,300 locations in the United States, and securities filings show Office Depot has about 1,900.

That’s why Staples last year announced plans to close 12% of its stores. In this digital age, people just aren’t buying pens and pencils like they used to, and Staples is feeling the pressure from all sides, including from giants WalMart (WMT) and Amazon (AMZN, Tech30). Over time, the multiple brands will be combined under “one global name, Staples,” he said. “Office Depot will make Staples bigger, and most importantly, we also believe Office Depot will make Staples better,” Staples CEO Ron Sargent said on a conference call with analysts. That’s the same calculation Office Depot made not long ago, when it bought OfficeMax. Office Depot became a unit of newly created ODP Corp last year, following a 1-for-10 reverse stock split and broader reorganization.Staples (SPLS) announced Wednesday it intends to buy rival Office Depot (ODP) in a $6.3 billion deal, betting that the key to higher profits is operating on an even larger scale. ODP said it was reviewing the offer, taking into account potential antitrust and other regulatory challenges given the previous outcomes. 'Our obligation to proceed with the transaction is not subject to a financing contingency.' 'Staples has sufficient resources to finance the transaction,' the company said. The retailer said it would raise the offer if ODP begins a sale of its commercial business unit or divests its CompuCom business, an IT solutions provider. for about 6.3 billion, forging a deal that will reduce the U.S. Staples, which was taken private by Sycamore Partners in 2017, said it is prepared to take 'all necessary measures' to divest ODP's commercial business unit to satisfy any regulatory objections. Since the first offer, new rivals such as online retailer Amazon (AMZN.O)as well as supermarkets Walmart (WMT.N) and Costco (COST.O) have crowded the market and e-commerce has boomed.ĭuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the shift to online shopping helped office retailers as the demand for stationary and other learn-from-home products rose. Federal Trade Commission saying the merger could reduce competition for nationwide contracts for office supplies. Staples has already made corporate governance changes to try to head off the threat of a shareholder revolt.

Staples' second attempt, a $6.3 billion offer in 2016, was blocked by the U.S. US office supply chain Staples has offered to buy the owner of Office Depot for 2.1bn, making a third push to acquire its smaller rival after competition regulators thwarted its previous efforts. Office Depot did not return calls and emails seeking comment.

Did staples buy office depot