Amazon's entrance into the office supplies world will have an undeniable impact to the industry as a whole.  While I understand the anti...

Amazon's Item Price Monopoly


Amazon's entrance into the office supplies world will have an undeniable impact to the industry as a whole. 

While I understand the antitrust action as a legal theory in this case, as far as blocking a deal for fear of antitrust and or monopoly is ridiculous. 

Amazon has a history of selling $1.00 for $0.99 - NOW they sell $1.00 for $0.95 - next is $1.00 for $0.75. Small business and household enterprises are as effected as listed companies. Amazon has a total monopoly - a monopoly on item prices. 


--- NEWS ON SUBJECT---

By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. judge who stopped Staples Inc's SPLS.O proposed merger with Office Depot Inc ODP.O last week agreed with antitrust enforcers that the deal would have meant higher prices for big business customers and that Amazon.com Inc's AMZN.O entry into office supplies would have done little to counter that. Judge Emmet Sullivan's opinion, released in redacted form on Tuesday, closely followed the Federal Trade Commission's arguments and took swipes at Staples' decision not to present a defense. The two companies scrapped the $6.3 billion merger on May 10 after Judge Sullivan issued an order temporarily stopping the deal. (Full Story) The judge at least twice noted a decision by Staples' attorney, Diane Sullivan, to scrap plans to present a defense after saying that the FTC failed to prove its case. Judge Sullivan wrote: "Defendants could have presented expert testimony to support" their position. The Staples attorney took issue with an FTC witness' reasoning to support the government's case, but Judge Sullivan noted that "defendants produced no expert evidence during the hearing to rebut that methodology." The FTC had stopped a previous merger attempt between the two companies in 1997. Since then, Amazon and other online sellers exploded onto the scene, while megastores such as Costco Wholesale Corp COST.O and Wal-Mart Stores Inc WMT.N further crowded the market. Staples was more recently emboldened to offer to buy Office Depot after the smaller chain succeeded in buying No. 3 OfficeMax in November 2013 with no divestitures.  (Editing by Matthew Lewis)  ((Diane.Bartz@thomsonreuters.com)(+ 1 202 898-8313)) 

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