Office Depot posts quarterly loss

Office Depot Inc reported a second-quarter loss on Wednesday as declining spending by smaller businesses and retail customers hurt sales.
The office supplies retailer had a loss of $2 million, or a penny a share, compared with earnings of $105.6 million, or 38 cents a share, a year earlier.
Small business owners have cut back on spending in the weak U.S. economy, bringing pain to the office supply sector.
Rival OfficeMax Inc reported a quarterly loss late on Tuesday after one-time charges from impairment of goodwill and intangible assets and severance costs, and it also noted lower retail and contract sales.
At Office Depot, total second-quarter sales fell 1% to $3.6 bln. North American retail sales fell 6% to $1.4 bln, while sales at U.S. and Canadian stores open for more than a year decreased 10%.
Sales in the business solutions division fell 5% to $1.1 bln. Office Depot said growth among large, national account customers was more than offset by a 10% sales decrease with small- and medium-size business customers. The company especially noted weakness in smaller business demand in Florida and California, which account for about 30% of the segment's sales.
International sales rose 13% to $1.1 bln.
Office Depot said it recently received an unsolicited offer from its Mexican joint venture partner to acquire the capital stock in the joint venture owned by Office Depot for $430 million. It added it has not yet taken part in substantive talks regarding the proposal.