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Office Depot and OfficeMax merge

Description of the companies


Office Depot is one of the world's largest sellers of office products and here we
can include anything that is needed in an office: starting from furniture and electronics,
continuing with copy paper and stationary and ending with coffee, tea, and cleaning
supplies.
The company was founded in March 1986 in Florida, has developed quickly all
around the world and for the moment Office Depot provides office supplies and services
through 1,678 worldwide retail stores, a dedicated sales force, top-rated catalogs, and
global e-commerce operations. Office Depot has annual sales of approximately $11.5
billion, about 39,000 employes, and serves customers in 60 countries around the world.1
Another interesting thing is the multitude of channels sales can take place through and
this includes office supply stores, a contract sales force, internet sites, direct marketing
catalogues and call centers.2
Vision
The vision of the company is: Delivering winning solutions that inspire worklife.3
1. Delivering means than the actions of the company speak louder than words, so they are
doing what they say theyre going to do efficiently and on time.
2. Winning is about acting with confidence and make anything that is needed to get
to
greater heights, and this greater heights meaning is being the best.
3. Solutions speaks about the efforts that the company is making in order to understand the
customers needs, so they offer products, services and innovative thinking that support
their customers to achieve success.
1 ***, About Us, http://www.officedepot.ro/en/aboutus/, accesed at 10.12.2013

2 ***, Company History, http://www.officedepot.ro/en/aboutus/companyhistory/, accesed on 10.12.13

3 ***, Vision and Values, http://www.officedepot.ro/en/aboutus/visionandvalues/, accesed on 10.12.2013.

4. Inspire means that the companys actions have as a primary goal to inspire and to unleash
creativity in order to help people achieve their goals.
5. Worklife is about combining the energy for work with the passion for life in order to
create a fuller, more enriched lifestyle.
Values
The values of a comany describe better what are the companys principles and the way
they want their customer to see them as a company, therefore we found relevant to add
the companys values to our project.4
1. Integrity is about earning trust and confidence of associates, internal and external
customers, suppliers and shareholders by being open, honest and truthful in every action
that is taking place.
2. Innovation is about developing a culture of creativity and a thirst for intelligent risktaking, as they aspire to do things that have never been done before.
3. Inclusion speaks about the approach that the company has for all opportunities and
challenges by respecting the diversity of thoughts, beliefs, backgrounds, cultures and
energies of all associates, customers and suppliers.
4. Customer Focus is about listening and understanding the customers needs and keep the
promises maked to them.
5. Accountability is about achieving and sustaining unprecedented results that create
value to our shareholders and stakeholders through personal commitment, collaboration
and shared leadership.
6. Other activities
Office Depot has provided support to the people and organizations in need, especialy
those who were affected by a natural disaster. In the case of a calamity, the employees are
raising money to help the people of the affected region and afterwards the amount gained
is doubled by the company. Another interesting thing is that Office Depot contributes to a
major cartridge recycling program by providing bags for customers to recycle their empty
inkjet cartridges and this helps to raise money for charities.
Office Max is an American company founded in 1988 that used to provide office
supplies and paper, technology products and solutions, packaging supplies and
equipment, health and hygiene products, cafeteria supplies and machines, and furniture to
large, medium and small businesses, education providers and consumers through field
4 Idem 3.

salespeople, outbound telesales, catalogs, Internet, and office products stores.


http://www.officemax.co.nz/about-us
As of December 2012, OfficeMax operated 941 stores in 47 states, Puerto Rico,
the U.S. Virgin Islands and Mexico. In 2012, net sales were $6.9 billion, down from $8.3
billion

in

2008.

phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?

item=UGFyZW50SUQ9NDk4NDg5fENoaWxkSUQ9NTM4MDQzfFR5cGU9MQ==&t
=1
Reasons for the merge
It was announced February 20, 2013, that Office Depot and OfficeMax will
combine in an all-stock deal, which will create the largest U.S. office-supplies chain. On
November 5, 2013, the merger was completed. The OfficeMax name continues to serve
as a brand of the newly formed Office Depot, Inc.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-20/office-depot-officemax-to-mergeto-compete-with-staples.html
Office Depot decided to merge with OfficeMax lead by the desire to get closer to
Staples Inc., the largest U.S. office-supplies chain, as the sales started to go down in
2012. On the other side, the reason OfficeMax decided to merge with Office Depot, was
the companys need to survive as the company started to lose sales to online rivals Office
Depot and Staples. In 2012, OfficeMax posted a net loss of $33.9 million compared with
net income of $2.9 million in 2011. Analysts on average had estimated a profit of $12.5
million. Sales fell 7.4% to $1.7 billion. Full-year 2012 sales were down 7% from the
previous year for Office Depot; OfficeMax reported full-year sales down 2.8% compared
with 2011. The results marked the sixth year of falling same-store sales for both
companies.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/02/20/office-depot-

officemax-merge/1932189/ Moreover, The shares of both companies fell, with Office


Depot dropping the most since April 2010. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0220/office-depot-officemax-to-merge-to-compete-with-staples.html

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