Regulators Approve Office Depot-OfficeMax Merger

U.S. antitrust regulators approved the merger of Office Depot Inc. (Boca Raton, Fla.) and OfficeMax Inc. (Naperville, Ill.) after a seven-month investigation.

The merger of the second- and third-largest office supply chains would create an organization with more than 2100 stores and $18 billion in combined revenue. Industry leader Staples Inc. (Framingham, Mass.) has about 2000 stores and revenues of $24 billion.

Regulators said the industry has changed since 1997, when they disallowed Staples’ attempted acquisition of Office Depot. Today, said the agency, consumers can acquire office products and furniture at huge mass merchandisers around the country and also on the Internet.