US office material suppliers Staples and Office Depot will not proceed with their merger plans announced at the start of the last year. The decision was made a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction that had been requested by the Federal Trade Commission, which opposed Staples plan to acquire Office Depot for $6.3 billion.
The FTC considers that combining the two companies would give them too large a chunk of the office supply retail market, which would violate antitrust law.
Staples and Office Depot have faced intense competition from retail stores that are not traditional office suppliers like Amazon and Wal-Mart.
