Staples, Inc. and Essendant Inc. have announced that affiliates of Staples have once again extended the expiration time of the previously announced tender offer for all outstanding shares of Essendant’s common stock.
The offer now runs until 6:00pm (New York City time) on January 16, 2019 unless extended further in accordance with the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of September 14 by Essendant, Staples, and Staples’ affiliates, Egg Merger Sub Inc. and Egg Parent Inc.
This is the sixth extension of the tender offer, most recently being extended following the earlier deadlines of January 9, January 2, December 27 2018, and December 18. Prior to that, the offer was previously scheduled to expire on December 11, and before that, on December 4, having already been extended from November 19.
The depositary for the tender offer has indicated that, as of 6:00pm (NYC), on January 9 2019, 22,640,097 shares of Essendant common stock have been validly tendered and not properly withdrawn pursuant to the tender offer (excluding 1,239,627 shares tendered pursuant to guaranteed delivery procedures), which represent, together with the 4,203,631 shares already owned by Egg Parent, Egg Merger Sub or any of their respective “affiliates”, approximately 71.3 percent of the outstanding shares.
Stockholders who have already tendered their shares into the tender offer do not have to re-tender their shares or take any other action as a result of the extension of the expiration time of the tender offer.
The tender offer will continue to be extended until all conditions are satisfied or waived, or until the tender offer is terminated, in either case pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement and as described in the Schedule TO.
