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EU: Office Depot considering sale of some European operations

By  |  May 17, 2016

Office Depot said on Monday it was considering selling some of its European operations, nearly a week after the No. 2 office supply chain and bigger rival Staples called off their merger due to antitrust concerns.

Staples in February agreed to sell Office Depot’s contract distribution business and its retail, online and catalog operations in Europe, in addition to all operations in Sweden to win approval for its $6.3 billion takeover of Office Depot from European regulators.

Office Depot had earlier completed a restructuring of its European operations in 2015.

The company said it expected disruption from the terminated deal to continue into the current quarter.

A US federal judge last week ordered the deal be temporarily halted because of antitrust concerns, forcing the companies to abandon the merger.

Office Depot said on Monday it was also looking at “various capital structure and shareholder return alternatives”.

Full Content: Reuters

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