Staples Vows Merger With Office Depot Won’t Result With Price Increase

More than 1,000 employees of Staples Inc. lost their jobs between November 2015 and January 2016, and this has been acknowledged by executives of the company, though for the first time.

Releasing earnings on Friday, the Staples’ executive Ronald Sargent disclosed the layoffs mentioning the company didn’t track where the layoffs occurred. However, earlier in January employees said many lost their jobs at the Framingham headquarters.

Staple is vigorously pursuing a merger with rival Office Depot Inc. The Federal Trade Commission is trying to block the deal.

Sargent said the company would fight the efforts of FTC and added the merger would not result with higher prices for sticky notes.

He said, “Competition has materially intensified, not lessened.” He cited the rise of Amazon.com Inc.

In 2015 the FTC sued to block the merger citing grounds the company would take an unfair advantage and result in higher prices.

Staples and Office Depot have control on 70 percent of the market in the United States and hence regulators are concerned too.

According to Sargent, the company would expand its sales beyond the office supplies and try to win more mid-sized business customers.