Martijn van de Hel and Adriaan Craita successfully assisted 123Inkt in obtaining an exemption from the waiting period and approval from the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) for the acquisition of Staples Netherlands.
123Inkt markets ink cartridges and laser toners as well as other office supplies such as paper, printers, and other computer accessories. 123Inkt sells to both businesses and consumers. Staples was an office supplies vendor for large B2B customers in the Netherlands. These were mainly contracts with large customers. Staples was declared bankrupt on 17 October 2023
In parallel with the merger notification, Maverick applied to the ACM for an exemption from the waiting period. An exemption was necessary because otherwise a large number of customers would switch to competing suppliers which would cause irreparable damage to Staples' business.
The transaction (including the exemption request) was notified on 1 November 2023, the exemption was granted on 7 November 2023, and the transaction was approved by the ACM on 15 November 2023.
This transaction has been widely covered in the media, see here, here, here, and here.
123Inkt was advised by Ten Holter Noordam on the M&A transaction.
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