Staples may close 50 stores; impact on LI sites unknown

Staples Inc. said it will walk away from its yearlong effort to purchase Office Depot Inc. if a judge sides with federal regulators seeking to block the deal.

And Staples CEO Ronald Sargent said Friday the company’s “plan B” could involve closing 50 more stores.

An injunction hearing is due to begin this month, with U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruling on the case by May 10. If Sullivan sides with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, “the acquisition of Office Depot is over from our perspective,” Staples officials said on a conference call Friday.

Staples has already been preparing for life without an Office Depot merger, a deal that would have unified the two largest office-supply chains in the United States. In January, the company shook up management and pledged to make its business more efficient, saying it may need to compete solo.

The FTC sued to block the transaction in December, arguing that a merger would squelch competition and raise prices for customers. Staples previously tried to buy Office Depot in the 1990s and was thwarted by the FTC.

As part of a “plan B” scenario, Staples said it will look to drive growth in categories outside of office supplies. It also plans to close more low-performing stores.

Sargent said Friday another 50 stores would be closed this year, bringing the number of shuttered locations to 300 since the beginning of 2014.

There are 22 Staples stores on Long Island, according to the company’s website. The list of stores scheduled to close is not finalized, a company spokeswoman said Friday. “As customers shift online, we are taking aggressive action to right-size our retail footprint,” she added

. With Newsday staff