Staples and Office Depot Offer to Shed Contracts to Secure FTC Merger Approval

Staples and Office Depot are offering to transfer $600 million in corporate contracts to office-supply wholesaler Essendant to appease federal regulators and secure approval for their merger deal, the Wall Street Journal reported late Friday, based on anonymous sources.

Spokespersons for Staples and Office Depot declined the Sun Sentinel's requests to comment on the report. Essendant didn't immediately return a call about the reported offer. Retail analyst David Marcotte said in an interview that such a deal could make sense if it called for the companies to divest only a portion of their combined corporate contracts to Deerfield, Illinois-based Essendant.