Essendant Inc., a supplier of workplace essentials, Tuesday announced that its previously announced acquisition from Staples, Inc. of wholesale contracts with minority and woman-owned office supply resellers and their large corporate customers representing sales of more than $550 million annually, will not close. The acquisition was contingent on the merger between Staples and Office Depot, Inc., which was preliminarily enjoined on antitrust grounds by a U.S. district court judge's ruling on May 10. Staples and Office Depot announced plans to abandon the merger in the wake of that ruling.

"While we are disappointed that we are not able to close on the transaction, we always understood this to be a potential outcome given the contingent nature of the agreement," said Robert B. Aiken, Jr., president and chief executive officer of Essendant. "We have demonstrated the ability to grow our enterprise account business and expect to continue this growth by fully enabling our independent resellers, many of whom are preferred options in the marketplace."