Office Depot, Staples Extending Merger Agreement Termination Date After Antitrust Complaint

The Office Depot and Staples boards voted to waive their merger agreement termination date of Feb. 4 and extend it to May 16, the companies said. The extension is to allow for the completion of ongoing federal district court litigation with the FTC (see 1512210025), they said Wednesday. The FTC filed a complaint last month charging that Staples' $6.3 billion buy of Office Depot violates antitrust laws. The combination would create a firm with a dominant share of the business-to-business office supplies market and would "significantly increase market concentration," with Staples, post-deal, controlling more than 70 percent of the market, said the complaint. The next-largest competitor would own less than 5 percent of the market, said the complaint, which cited Amazon Business and W.B. Mason as companies that would be negatively affected. Office Depot and Staples said they're also working to extend financing terms of the deal and expect to execute the extension agreement when terms are finalized. Staples and Office Depot signed a definitive merger agreement in February.