Staples and Essendant have entered into a definitive agreement under which an affiliate of Staples, the world's largest office solutions provider, will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Essendant common stock for $12.80 per share in cash, or a transaction value of $996m including net debt. The $12.80 per share purchase price reflects a 51% premium to Essendant's share price on April 11, 2018, the day before the company announced plans to merge with GPC's S.P. Richards business, and a 10.3x multiple of last-twelve-months Adjusted EBITDA. Ric Phillips, President and Chief Executive Officer of Essendant added, "We believe combining with Staples provides a tremendous opportunity to enhance our resources and ability to serve customers, while delivering compelling and certain value to shareholders. I want to thank all our associates for their continued commitment and dedication as we have navigated this process over the past several months."