Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, September 4, 1996
Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Wednesday, September 4, 1996
For transitional purposes, Vivian Ho, the company's current executive vice president and chief operating officer, assumed the chief executive post on Monday, the company said.
During his 44-year career, Yee helped Henry Kaiser build Hawaii Kai and other real estate projects in Hawaii, the mainland, Australia, Guam and Puerto Rico. Yee was president of the Hawaii Kai Development Corp. and Kaiser Aetna.
He also was president and chief executive of the Queen Emma Foundation for five years. In 1993, he founded the Queen's International Corp. to help make Hawaii an international health center. Both organizations are subsidiaries of the Queen's Health Systems.
Yee is director of the Oahu Economic Development Board (formerly known as the Economic Development Corp. of Honolulu) and of the Hawaii Housing Development Corp.
He also is on the 30-member Board of Overseers of Harvard University which provides direction to the curriculum and policy at the university.
The new company, Staples/Office Depot, will have combined revenues of some $10 billion.
There are 532 Office Depot stores in the United States, including three on Oahu. Office Depot also operates four Images and three Furniture at Work stores. Staples Inc. runs 517 stores in U.S. and Canada under the names Staples, Staples Express, Business Depot and Bureau en Gros.
Office Depot shareholders were to receive 1.14 shares of Staples common stock for each of their Office Depot shares. The deal is subject to approval by shareholders and regulators.
At yesterday's final prices, Office Depot shareholders would be getting $22.23 in Staples stock for each share, a 40 percent premium over Office Depot's close.
At noon on Wall Street today, Office Depot climbed $4.50 a share to $20.371/2 on the New York Stock Exchange, while Staples lost $1.50 a share to $18 in Nasdaq stock market trading.
Staples said the new company will cut overhead by combining some operations, including mail order, but the companies also said that the overall number of employees would increase as new stores open.
Staples' chairman and chief executive, Thomas Stemberg, is to be chief executive of the new company.
Office Depot head David Fuentes will be chairman.
UAW vice president Ernest Lofton said union leaders notified Ford executives of the decision yesterday, but added that the union was not viewing the company as a traditional "strike target" in the talks.
The selection will allow the No. 2 U.S. automaker to negotiate an agreement that the UAW will then try to force on Ford rivals General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp. Contracts covering nearly 400,000 U.S. hourly workers at all three companies expire September 14. Despite the conciliatory talk, Ford as the target company faces the threat of a national strike if it fails to reach an agreement before the expiration.