Office Depot has rejected a new takeover attempt from office stock rival Staples, according to a letter sent by a business executive on Tuesday.
However, Office Depot’s parent company, ODP, said it was open to a different kind of deal, such as selling its retail and e-commerce businesses to Staples or closing a joint venture, the report said.
In the letter, ODP Chairman Joseph Vassalluzzo wrote that a deal that is not a full takeover “could be executed more efficiently, with much greater certainty and less regulatory risk than your proposal”.
“It would also help maintain competitiveness against non-traditional retailers and optimize ongoing choices for consumers,” he wrote. He wrote the letter to Stefan Kaluzny, the CEO of Sycamore Partners and a board member of USR Parent, Staples’ subsidiary.
The rejected offer was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Shares of ODP fell nearly 2% on Tuesday in premarket trading to $ 45.
Staples has made two more attempts to acquire Office Depot’s parent company, ODP. Five years ago, antitrust officials blocked a merger between the two companies and sent shares of the two companies to the tank.
In the latest attempt, Staples proposed buying the company on Jan. 11 for more than $ 2 billion, or $ 40 a share, according to the Journal.
Together with Office Depot, ODC also owns OfficeMax, another chain of office supply stores, and CompuCom, an information technology company.
Read the letter here.