Very good question. “What, exactly, was gained by disallowing this merger?”
The fact is that Staples and Office Depot and Best Buy, etc. no longer offer many common in-store items that are commodities, forcing purchasers to go to Amazon or eBay to get them. Is this because of eliminating costly local floor space for consumer inspection and selection? Is merging just to be larger going to keep a local storefront?
-—Specifically, Jefferies analyst Daniel Binder advised his investor clients that Office Depot and Staples “will continue to face secular declines and each company’s business is vulnerable to competition from online and non-office-supply retailers,” such as Costco and Wal-Mart.-—
I know office supply small business owners who once did very well until Staples put them out of business, as they couldn’t compete on price. Families broken; lives shattered.
I don’t remember the IBD Editorial Board getting too upset about that.
Staples - founded 1986.
Office Depot - founded 2003.
So when Staples first opened Office Depot was not even around. Was it violating anti-trust rules just by opening its doors?
What anti-trust??
Staples went out of business, and closed the store in town, leaving Office Depot as the ONLY office supply store in Alexandria, Louisiana. Any other town large enough to support an office supply store is a nice 3 hour drive, either north, west, or south.
?? but the Office Depot\Office Max deal was ok ?
They act like these are the only two stores people can buy office supplies.
“Another Awful Antitrust Ruling Damages Another U.S. Industry”
Which “industry” would that be? The “industry” of selling grossly overpriced office supplies from clone-like retail chain stores of one sort or the other that seem to be on every corner staffed by clueless high-school dropouts? Is THAT the “industry” that would be damaged?