Platinum Equity, a private equity company in Australia, has acquired OfficeMax from Office Depot.
Financial Review reported that this will make Platinum, who also bought Staples Australia in March, a formidable player controlling 90 percent of the B2B market in Australia and New Zealand through the two businesses which is 10 times more than COS or Lyreco.
OfficeMax was performing poorly and lost $36 million (€33 million) over three years and as Office Depot is more focused on its US business it has started to sell some of its European operations.
Platinum’s acquisition is “subject to regulatory approval in the US, Australia and New Zealand” and the terms of the sale were not disclosed.