Office Depot Earnings, Revenue Hurt By Regulatory Review Of Staples Acquisition

Office Depot Inc. said on Tuesday it had net income of $46 million for the first quarter, or 8 cents per share, compared with $45 million, or 8 cents per share in the year earlier period. Adjusted earnings for the quarter came in at 10 cents per share, below the FactSet consensus of 12 cents. Sales in the quarter dropped 9% to $3.54 billion, compared with $3.88 billion during the same period a year ago. Sales were also below the FactSet consensus of $3.62 billion. Office Depot's long regulatory review of the pending Staples acquisition has had a substantial disruptive impact on business, said Chief Executive Roland Smith in a statement. The two companies entered an acquisition agreement in February of last year and, if passed, Staples will acquire all outstanding shares of Office Depot. Office Depot expects to incur about $100 million in expenses from its merger over the remaining 2016-2017 period and has plans to shutter more than 50 more stores in 2016 as part of an optimization plan that totals 400 closures. Shares of Office Depot were inactive in premarket trade, but are up 8.7% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 Index is up 2.2%.