Thread: Staples to acquire Office Depot for $6.3 BILLION

Staples to acquire Office Depot for $6.3 billion


Office-supply chains Staples and Office Depot will merge after Staples purchased Office Depot for $6 billion. (AFP/Getty /)



By ASSOCIATED PRESS

• Business

That was easy: Staples to acquire Office Depot for $6.3 billion
Staples is buying Office Depot, which just combined with OfficeMax a little over a year ago


The rapidly changing tools of the workplace and the way we shop has led to another major consolidation in the retail office supply business as Staples announced Wednesday the $6.3-billion acquisition of rival Office Depot.

The cash-and-stock deal deal comes a little more than a year after Office Depot combined with OfficeMax, with too many stores fighting for too few sales.

Businesses and consumers have shifted rapidly to online shopping at the same time that printers and the use of other traditional office supplies have diminished. That shift coincided with a recession that substantially altered the way companies spend money.

The new company is expected to have annual sales of approximately $39 billion.

Office Depot Inc. shareholders will receive $7.25 in cash and 0.2188 of a share in Staples Inc. at closing. The transaction values Office Depot at $11 per share. The companies put the deal's equity value at $6.3 billion.

Staples has a market capitalization of approximately $11 billion, while Office Depot, which tied up with OfficeMax in November 2013, has a market capitalization of about $4 billion.

The two companies began talking about a buyout in September, they said Wednesday.

Staples said it would realize at least $1 billion in annual cost savings by the third full fiscal year after the transaction is complete.

"These savings will dramatically accelerate our strategic reinvention which is focused on driving growth in our delivery businesses and in categories beyond office supplies," Staples Chairman and Chief Executive Ron Sargent said in a printed statement.

Sargent will continue to serve in those roles and Staples will keep its corporate headquarters in Framingham, Mass.

Last month the activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP urged Staples to combine with Office Depot, based in Boca Raton, Fla. In a letter addressed to Sargent, Starboard suggested he immediately hire an investment bank and legal advisors to help the board evaluate, structure and execute a transaction with Office Depot.

Starboard disclosed in a regulatory filing in December that it had purchased a 5.1% stake in Staples and boosted its stake in Office Depot. New York's Starboard has a history of buying stakes in companies and then pushing for change.

Early last year Staples said that it was closing up to 225 stores by the end of 2015 because people were using less office supplies and shopping more online than they were at its stores.

The deal, which was unanimously approved by both companies' boards, is expected to close by year's end.

It still needs approval from Office Depot shareholders. Once the transaction is complete, the Staples board will increase from 11 to 13 members and include two Office Depot directors approved by Staples.

Staples said that it was temporarily suspending its stock buybacks so that it can concentrate on paying down debt related to the deal.

Shares of Staples shed 22 cents to $18.79 in premarket trading.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...204-story.html