FTC: Staples offer is inadequate

At a pre-trial hearing concerning the Staples-Office Depot merger, the US Federal Trade Commission stated that the offer by Staples to divest $500-million in commercial contracts was inadequate.

Diane Sullivan, who presented the case for Statples, says that the company had made a “significant and substantial” offer to the FTC.

On 7 December, the FTC filed an administrative complaint charging that Staples’s proposed $6,3-billion acquisition of Office Depot would violate the antitrust laws by significantly reducing competition nationwide in the market for “consumable” office supplies sold to large business customers for their own use.

Judge Emmet Sullivan says that the trial on the preliminary injunction is expected in March, with a decision in May.

Source: www.office-times.com