For those who follow antitrust merger battles, 2015 was a good year for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Most recently, the FTC obtained an injunction in the Sysco-US Foods merger.1 And now, as everybody knows, the FTC is staring down the parties to the proposed Staples-Office Depot merger, overtly relying on the same playbook—alleging a “2-to-1″ merger in a national market—that was successful in Sysco. But this is really one to watch, should it go the distance, as the antitrust history of mergers in the office supply space is complex and rich. Yes, the FTC defeated the same merger in 1997, but there the FTC was protecting the “market” for us ordinary consumers of office supplies.2
This time around, the FTC has instead shown concern for large (and presumably sophisticated and powerful) “B-to-B” (business-to-business) customers. Even more intriguing, in 2013, the FTC cleared the Office Depot-OfficeMax merger (a “3-to-2″ in the same “B-to-B” space), expressly explaining to the public why consolidation did not threaten these business customers.3
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