Staples-Office Depot Merger Blocked as Anticompetitive

A federal judge halted the Staples Inc. proposed acquisition of Office Depot Inc., effectively ending a bid to unite the two biggest U.S. office suppliers into what the government argued would be an unchallenged giant (FTC v. Staples Inc., D.D.C., 15-02115, 5/10/16).

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington May 10 blocked the $6.3 billion deal, a victory for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which argued that the combined national supplier of pens and printer paper would harm buyers.

The FTC met its “burden of showing that there is a reasonable probability that the proposed merger will substantially ...