FTC Finds Office Depot, OfficeMax Merger Not An Anti-Trust Concern

Office Depot and OfficeMax can continue on a merger path after the Federal Trade Commission closed its seven-month investigation. The agency was looking into the $1.2 billion office superstore merger for possible antitrust issues, as it did in 1997 when it considered a Staples-Office Depot merger. In that case, it rejected the deal on the basis of econometric evidence that prices were higher in areas where one office supply superstore did not have a nearby superstore competitor. However, less than 20 years later the FTC said it has found “the market for the sale of consumable office supplies has changed significantly,” including by way of competition from stores like Walmart and Costco, as well as from online sales.