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Office Depot urges rejection of holder nominees
ATLANTA, March 08 – Retailer Office Depot Inc on Tuesday urged
shareholders to reject one shareowner’s bid to nominate two directors
in an attempt to remove its current and former chief executives from
the board.The shareholder, Woodbridge Group, had said on Monday it
intended to nominate former presidents of Office Depot and rival
Staples Inc to the Office Depot board to serve in place of two company
candidates, current CEO Steve Odland and former CEO David Fuente.Woodbridge Group, which includes real estate developer Levitt Corp ,
said Office Depot “needs new representation” to revitalize the
retailer, which it added had lost vision and its competitive
standing.But Office Depot said in its statement on Tuesday that
removing Odland and Fuente from the board in favor of Woodbridge’s
“dissident” nominees “would be highly disruptive, and could destabilize
the company and damage prospects for a successful turnaround.”The
tension leading up to the April 23 annual meeting comes as Office
Depot’s financial results have suffered. Its stock price has fallen 69
percent in the past year.The retailer reported a bigger-than-expected drop in fourth quarter
profit last month as slowing job growth, the crumbling U.S. housing
market and credit market jitters led small business customers to curb
spending.Also in February, a regulatory filing disclosed that the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Office Depot for
allegedly making a series of phone calls to analysts last June, warning
them that weak economic conditions were hurting sales. Office Depot
also announced last month that its chief financial officer
resigned.Woodbridge Group said it would nominate ex-Office Depot
President Mark Begelman and former Staples president, Martin Hanaka,
for the Office Depot board, adding that the two were committed to
“taking immediate and aggressive action to turn around Office Depot’s
business and redefine its position in the marketplace.”
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