Staples, Office Depot agree to merge
By _Margaret Kane_
Staples Inc. and Office Depot Inc. have agreed to merge, creating a new
office products chain with more than 1,100 superstore locations.
> A lot of which could to be sut down, since they are
> overlapping territories
The new company, to be called Staples The Office Depot, will be
created by a stock swap. Shareholders of Office Depot common stock will
receive 1.14 shares of Staple stock per share.
> What a lame name... they could have invented some new
> made-up name like Cordiant (advertising), Ceridian
> (formerly Control Data), or Wang Chung (coming any day
> now from a Massachusetts imaging company... :-).
> Stapliant, the Post-It-Place... Paperdesic: "papering the world
> with office gunk 24 hours a day"
The deal is expected to be tax-free and a boost to earnings for the combined
company.
> Nice when you get Da Man on your side...
Together, the two companies had more than $8 billion in revenue last year.
Staples reported net income of approximately $73.7 million on sales of about
$3.1 billion for the year ended Feb. 3. Office Depot had net income of about
$132.4 million on sales of about $5.3 billion for the year ended Dec. 30.
> What a pathetic margin! This is almost as bad as grocery retailing
> (which is 1.5-2%). Would you like to spend $8bn and only net
> $200m a year?
Separately, Office Depot announced today that its third-quarter earnings
would fall below analysts' expectations.
> Yeah, this is a move with positive momentum...
David Fuente, chairman and CEO of Office Depot, in Delray Beach, Fla., will
become chairman of the new company. Thomas Stemberg, chairman and CEO of
Staples, in Framingham, Mass., will serve as CEO.
The new company will be based in Massachusetts but will maintain offices,
including the MIS department and Business Services division, in Florida.
Staples also announced that John Wilson, the company's chief financial
officer and executive vice president of finance and strategy, will resign
effective September 15 to become chief administrative officer at The Gap Inc.
> Hmmm.... staples, clothing... someone call Berna!