For all friends and family and other interested folks. Yes indeed my company Corporate Express, formerly known as Buhrmann when I worked in Amsterdam, has been taken over by Staples Inc. Last Friday they announced to have acquired more then 95% of our outstanding ordinary shares. I expect in the next week we will be officially part of Staples Inc.
What happens next is as of this moment unclear, we will have several integration teams formed over the next couple of weeks and they will take some time to analyze our company and its departments and functions. Also it is not clear if and when our name will change, but would be obvious to me with such a brand awareness Staples has in the office products market, due to its retail shops.
For all your Dutch folks who don’t know staples, in the Netherlands they own Office Center retail stores. They are the number 1 retailer in the US and with taking over Corporate Express we are now the Global Leader in the Office Supplies Business to Business as well.