Dive Brief:
Office Depot on Tuesday turned down Sycamore-owned Staples' $2.1 billion acquisition offer from last week, but Office Depot Chair Joseph Vassalluzzo did outline ways the two might combine retail operations.
In a letter to private equity firm Sycamore Partners' Managing Director Stefan Kaluzny, a member of the board at Staples' parent company, Vassalluzzo said the Office Depot board had "unanimously concluded that there is a more compelling path forward," including "combining our retail and consumer-facing ecommerce operations with Staples under the right set of circumstances and on mutually acceptable terms."
Office Depot is moving ahead with a sale of CompuCom, after a strategic review of the IT services unit, which the retailer bought in 2017, Vassalluzzo also said.