Staples Renews Offer for Office Depot’s Consumer Business

USR Parent, Inc., otherwise known as Staples, has renewed its offer to purchase the consumer business of ODP Corporation, the parent company of Office Depot and Office Max. Staples is offering $1.0 billion, an offer it first made on June 4, 2021.

Staples said that in November 2020, it had filed necessary governmental approvals with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to acquire Office Depot’s consumer business, and “has made substantial progress responding to the government’s data requests and inquiries.” It also said it’s confident it will obtain necessary U.S. antitrust approvals.

Staples’ purchase offer includes about 1,100 Office Depot and OfficeMax retail stores, the officedepot.com ecommeric website, and Office Depot and OfficeMax intellectual property, including all brand names.

For its part, in May 2021, ODP reported that its board had approved a plan to split the company into two publicly traded companies. Under the plan ODP would retain its retail consumer and small-business products and services division. ODP expects to complete the separation by the first half of 2022.

In January 2021, ODP had turned a Staples offer of $2.1 billion in cash, stating Staples was not likely to overcome U.S. regulatory challenges. It did state however that it might be open to a different deal, including combining the companies’ retail operations.

This isn’t the first time Staples has tried to purchase Office Depot. It tried in 2016, but a U.S.  federal judge issued an injunction temporarily blocking a proposed $6.3 billion deal Staples-Office Depot merger over antitrust concerns. Staples had also tried to acquire Office Depot in 1996, but was again blocked by U.S. regulators who cited antitrust concerns.