Sycomore Seeking to Take $1 Billion out of Staples, May Be Considering Sale

Bloomberg reports that private-equity firm Sycamore Partners is seeking to take most of its cash out of Staples Inc. “through a recapitalization that will saddle the company with roughly $1 billion of additional debt, according to people with knowledge of the plan.”

Last month, Staples announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire DEX Imaging, a leading independent U.S. document-imaging technology dealer, for an undisclosed sum.

Sycamore may also be considering selling Staples, one source said.

If Sycamore can sell this debit, it would allow it to recoup about two-thirds of the $1.6 billion it put up last year to buy Staples’ B2B corporate office-supply business, which Dex would be a part of, leaving it with about $600 million of equity in the unit.

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