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BUSINESS A25
Thursday 11 February 2016
Staples gets EU approval for acquisition of Office Depot
NEW YORK (AP) — Staples tle competition and allow tion with the merger three
has received European years ago of Office Depot,
approval for its buyout of the new company to dic- based in Boca Raton, Flori-
Office Depot and in ex- da, and OfficeMax.
change, it said Wednes- tate the price of supplies. Office Depot and Staples
day that it would split off now say that competition,
some operations in Europe Staples and Office Depot with the arrival of major on-
to allay monopoly fears. line operators like Amazon.
The company will divest all Inc. recently extended this com, has become even
of Office Depot’s opera- more severe, and that the
tions in Sweden, as well as week’s deadline to com- FTC is contradicting itself
European retail, contract, because it said that the
online and catalog opera- plete the deal by more office supply market was
tions in an agreement with highly competitive only
the European Commission. than three months, to May three years ago.
But the $6.3 billion still needs Shares of both companies
approval in Canada at 16, giving it more time to ar- have plunged 50 percent
home in the U.S., which is this year as companies
far from assured. gue its case. clamp down on spending
U.S. regulators in Decem- and continue to migrate to
ber rejected Staples’ of- “The acquisition has been a more digital work place.
fer to sell $1.25 billion in Staples Inc., based in Fram-
contracts to work around approved in Australia, New ingham, Massachusetts,
anti-trust issues. The Fed- said that it is still willing to
Zealand, China, and Eu- negotiate with the FTC and
that it may pursue legal ac-
rope,” said Staples Chair- tion to close the deal.
Shares of Office Depot
man and CEO Ron Sargent. Inc. and Staples both
rose sharply in premarket
“Regulatory agencies trading.q
around the world under-
People walk into a Staples office supply store in Miami. Staples stand that this acquisition
has received European approval Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016, for
its buyout of Office Depot and in exchange, will split off busi- will allow Staples to pro-
nesses there to allay monopoly fears.
vide increased value and
(AP Photo/ Lynne Sladky)
service to customers of all
eral Trade Commission be- of the last two major office
lieves that the combination supply retailers would throt- sizes. We look forward to a
full, impartial judicial review
in the United States.”
The office supply sector has
Japan Internet company SoftBank’s been upended by techno-
profit suffers over US carrier Sprint
logical changes in the work
place, as well as a slow
economic recovery. The in-
dustry had already under-
YURI KAGEYAMA gone a notable consolida-
AP Business Writer
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese A man walks past a sign of SoftBank in Yokohama, near Tokyo,
telecommunications and Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. Japanese telecommunications and
Internet company Soft- Internet company SoftBank is reporting an 88 percent drop in
Bank is reporting an 88 fiscal third quarter profit as it struggles to turn around its U.S. car-
percent drop in fiscal third rier Sprint.
quarter profit as it struggles
to turn around its U.S. car- (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
rier Sprint.
SoftBank Group Corp. re- Son repeatedly promised SoftBank’s mobile con-
ported Wednesday a 2.3 in his earnings presenta- nections in Japan are “the
billion yen ($20 million) tion Wednesday that the best in the world,” Son said,
October-December profit, dismal results at Sprint had implying his company had
down from 18.7 billion yen bottomed out and things the experience to deliver
the same period a year were about to improve. that eventually in the U.S.
earlier. “Sprint is where there’s and elsewhere. q
As the first to offer the the biggest gap between
iPhone in Japan, Soft- many people’s image and
Bank’s business in Japan my image,” he said.
is going strong, but it has Waste was massive in the
faced a challenge with past at Sprint,
money-losing Sprint. but executives were work-
Sprint has promised to cre- ing on eliminating such
ate a superior network, of- waste, Son said. He also
fer competitive prices and said users are no longer
provide better services. quitting Sprint, and the car-
rier was doing consistently
The company based in well in connection speed
Overland Park, Kansas, tests.
says it’s on track to cut
$800 million in costs for fis-
cal 2015, having slashed
2,500 jobs since the fall, or
8 percent of its workforce.
But SoftBank did not give
any full year projections.
“Currently it is difficult to
provide forecasts on the
results in figures due to a
large number of uncertain
factors,” it said.
Chief Executive Masayoshi
