products company . for the airline see corporate express airline . staples business advantage type subsidiary industry distribution founded 1993 staples contract and commercial 1993 buhrmann n.v. 1986 corporate express headquarters massachusetts united states of america key people shira goodman president north american commercial products office products revenue 23.1 billion 2013 1 operating income 1.2 billion 2013 1 profit 1.1 billion 2013 1 parent staples inc. website www.staplesadvantage.com staples business advantage is the contract division of staples inc. providing office products technology products facilities supplies and breakroom supplies to businesses and institutions . established in 1993 as staples contract and commercial the division was rebranded as staples national advantage and staples business advantage in 1995 . in 2008 staples acquired corporate express previously known as buhrmann expanding its contract offering to a global market . in 2009 this division was rebranded as staples advantage . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 buhrmann 1.2 corporate express corporation 1.3 buhrmann and corporate express merger 1.4 staples acquisition of corporate express 2 references 3 external links history edit buhrmann edit buhrmann n.v. was initially formed from knp bt a paper packaging and printing industry distribution company founded in 1993 by the simultaneous merger of three companies koninklijke nederlandsche papierfabrieken knp b hrmann tetterode and vrg groep . across 1997 and 1998 the paper and packaging business areas were divested leaving just the distribution interest covering bt office products as well as graphic systems and paper merchandising businesses . knp bt was renamed buhrmann n.v. in july 1998 . corporate express corporation edit corporate express was founded by jirka rysavy also the founder of gaiam in 1986 in boulder colorado . initially a regional office products retailer with 11 employees located in one small building the company established a program of strategic procurement solutions as an industry innovation . in 1991 corporate express became a public company with reported revenues of 621 million annually . through acquisition of approximately 200 companies by the end of 1999 the company added to its product lines customer services and geographic breadth . by january 1999 its last full year sec filing corporate express had revenues of 3.75 b. 3 buhrmann and corporate express merger edit in october 1999 buhrmann acquired its competitor corporate express corporation and combined it with bt office products . corporate express became the name of the office products arm of buhrmann n.v. . in may 2001 corporate express acquired substantially all of the us office products usop north american office products assets including certain stand alone furniture businesses . usop s north american office products operations were integrated into corporate express resulting in expected revenues of approximately 5 billion in north america.as a result many board members of usop gained spots on the board of corporate express . in 2003 jirka rysavy fully retired at age 48 . the company s new focus on a single business area was consolidated when its paper merchandising division was sold to australia s paperlinx in october 2003 leaving only the office related products business . reflecting the new single focus it was decided to change the name of the company to corporate express n.v. in april 2004 . 4 staples acquisition of corporate express edit united states based office supplies retailer staples inc. launched an unsolicited acquisition bid for the company on 19 february 2008 offering 7.25 per share . 5 the corporate express board rejected the offer saying that the price undervalued the company . 6 in a move widely seen as an attempt to stave off interest from staples the president announced a planned 1.4 billion takeover of french rival lyreco on 21 may 7 only for staples to make an increased offer of 9.15 per share on 3 june . 8 after this too was rejected a final offer of 9.25 per share valuing corporate express at 1.68 billion was accepted by the board on 11 june . 9 the proposed lyreco acquisition was subsequently abandoned . 9 with over 95 % of its stock acquired by staples corporate express was removed from the aex index on 4 july 2008 . 10 shares of the company were delisted on 5 august as staples gained full control . this buyout of 1.68 billion euro equal to 2 204 910 223 .03 usd was one of the biggest of the decade . corporate express is now part of staples advantage and is publicly traded on the nyse under symbol spls . 11 references edit notes a b c annual report 2013 pdf . staples inc. retrieved 2014 10 27 . important milestones . 1999 sec 10k filing . sec.gov . sec . retrieved 2 august 2014 . weak economic data sends markets tumbling to sharply lower close hudson alexandra 19 february 2008 . staples in 2.5 bln euro offer for corp. express . reuters . retrieved 2008 02 19 . foster patrick 19 february 2008 . staples bid for rival office supplier rejected . the times . london . retrieved 2008 02 20 . wendlandt astrid ; kreijger gilbert 21 may 2008 . corp express fights staples bid with french buy . reuters . retrieved 2008 06 03 . kanner joram 3 june 2008 . staples lifts corporate express bid to eu1 .67 billion . bloomberg . retrieved 2008 06 03 . a b burke heather ; kanner joram 11 june 2008 . staples to buy corporate express for 2.6 billion . bloomberg . retrieved 2008 07 04 . corporate express to be removed from aex on friday . afx news . forbes . 3 july 2008 . archived from the original on 2011 06 04 . retrieved 2008 07 04 . last day for corporate express shares . dutchnews.nl . 5 august 2008 . retrieved 2008 08 20 . further reading solomon stephen d. december 1995 . new world ordered . inc. retrieved october 18 2013 . external links edit official website staples business advantage canada staples inc. corporate express logo design and history v t e staples inc. staples bernard jpg kalamazoo malling beck mondoffice neat ideas office centre pressel quill staples advantage staples argentina staples canada retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title staples advantage & oldid 738080378 categories office supply companiesretail companies of the united statescompanies based in broomfield coloradocompanies of the netherlandsdistributors navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran aisnederlandsrom n edit links this page was last modified on 6 september 2016 at 20 05 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view