Two companies frequently mistaken for one another, Office Depot (ODP -0.45%) and OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX), will no longer have that problem. The pair announced in a joint press release that they have closed what they describe as a "merger of equals." The news comes less than a week after the Federal Trade Commission signed off on the move.
As one, the combined entity will be known as Office Depot, trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the same ticker (ODP). It will be helmed on an interim basis by its component CEOs, Depot's Neil Austrian and Max's Ravi Saligram, until a single and more permanent chief executive is found.
The announcement comes on the heels of the Q3 results released by its two parts today. For the quarter, Office Depot posted sales of $2.62 billion and an attributable net profit of $160.9 million ($0.41 per diluted share). Those numbers for Q3 2012 were $2.69 billion and a loss of $61.9 million ($0.25).
OfficeMax took in sales of $1.66 billion during the quarter, netting an attributable profit of $30.9 million ($0.34 per diluted share). For Q3 2012, top line was $1.74 billion and net amounted to $433.5 million ($4.92), due largely to sizable gains on the retirement of debt.
