Staples is being acquired by a private-equity firm for $6.9 billion
Customers shop at the Staples store in Manhattan, New YorkThomson Reuters
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Staples agreed to be acquired by Sycamore Partners for about $6.9 billion.
The company announcedWednesday that it entered a merger agreement with the private-equity firm in which its shareholders will receive $10.25 per share in cash.
According to Reuters, Sycamore won an auction for the office-supplies retailer that reported a 7.1% drop in retail revenue last year. Staples scrapped a merger with Office Depot in May 2016 that would have given it more muscle to compete with online retailers.
"We have tremendous confidence in CEO Shira Goodman and great respect for the Staples management team and are excited about this opportunity to partner with them to accelerate long-term profitability," said Stefan Kaluzny, the managing director of Sycamore Partners, in a statement.
Barclays and Morgan Stanley are acting as Staples' financial advisors, while nine banks including Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS are providing debt financing to Sycamore Partners. This deal, expected to be completed by December 2017, would be the largest leveraged buyout this year, according to Dealogic data cited by the WSJ.
Staples shares jumped 8% in late trading on Wednesday after The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that the company was close to being acquired.
Staples' stock closed at $9.93, and the company had a market cap of about $6 billion.
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