Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) is urging shareholders to reject the efforts of Levitt Corp. (NYSE: LEV) and Woodbridge Equity Fund to elect two of their nominees to the company's board of directors at the company's April 23rd annual meeting. The investors, who own about 1% of the company, are seeking to replace the company's current CEO and chairman and its former CEO and chairman; they have nominated the company's former COO and the former president of Staples (NYSE: SPLS) to replace them.
In a press release, the company said that it "believes that removing two of the most experienced retailing executives from the Office Depot Board would be highly disruptive, and could destabilize the Company and damage prospects for a successful turnaround. The Board has a strong long-range plan that is in the process of being implemented under difficult macroeconomic conditions."
As with many situations like this, the chart tells the story. Over the past 10 years, Office Depot has lost nearly 50% of its value while Staples has more than doubled in value. Obviously the current strategy is a failure, and the "experienced retailing executives" have destroyed billions of dollars in shareholder value. They might as well give someone else a shot and, if these directors should be opposed, the opposition shouldn't come from a board of directors with a horrendous track record.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-04-2008 @ 1:12PM
EX ODP MGMT said...
ODP has tanked over the past decade. They should have left Begelman & Fuentes alone to run the company. I actually perfer to shop at Office Max...the worse of the BIG 3 ten years ago. The biggest issue with ODP is constant change. They should go back to the days when people actually worked there as a close knit "family" and did not worry if they would become the lastest scapegoat. Then management could rebuild what was once a great company.