Office Depot Inc will acquire smaller rival OfficeMax Inc in a $1.2 billion all-stock deal, the companies said on Wednesday, confirming an agreement inadvertently announced earlier in the day, before it was completed.The combined entity's name, headquarters location and CEO are all still undetermined, suggesting the companies were in a rush to get the deal confirmed after a draft accidentally went up on Office Depot's website.Office Depot Chief Executive Officer Neil Austrian and OfficeMax CEO Ravi Saligram are both candidates for the top job, the companies said in a statement.A source familiar with the situation said earlier on Wednesday that the deal was not yet completed when the statement was posted. News of the early release first broke around 7:30 a.m. EST (1230 GMT), but the confirmation did not come until about two hours later.
Office Depot, Inc. (Office Depot) is a global supplier of office products and services. Shares of ODP fell by 12.45% or $-0.625/share to $4.40. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $1.51 and as high as $6.10. On average, 6317940 shares of ODP exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 77352448.
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