Office Depot

Research Assignment for

Principles of Accounting for Managers

Yearly Financial Summary for 2004

for Office Depot

Presented by

John C. Mcloughlin

31 January 2006

Office Depot

When an investor decides to place their money into a certain business, there are several determining factors. Some of these include price of the stock, reputation of the business, and certain trends the business has followed. When speaking of the latter, trends, the investor would like to see the business making money, but not having peaked. A certain business with its roots right here in South Florida is Office Depot, and they have shown a steady and solidly upward moneymaking trend for its stockholders.

Office Depot was formed in 1986 and its first store was opened in Fort Lauderdale. The first Chairman and Chief Executive Officer was David Fuente. Office Depot went public in 1988, with tremendous success. In 1990 Office Depot had 173 stores in 27 states while merging with Office Club, Inc. The growth of Office Depot did not only occur domestically, they also opened stores in Israel and Colombia.

As Office Depot continually grew in strength and holdings, the company also was taking over several other major office supply corporations. Beginning in 1992 when the acquired H. Q. Office International, Inc. continuing through 1994 with the acquisition of Wilson Stationary & Printing Company as well as Eastman Office Products Corporation. The growth was also seen across the international market, as mentioned before stores were already opened in Colombia and Israel, this was only the beginning. Between 1995 and 1998 Office Depot opened stores in Poland, Hungary, Thailand, Mexico, France, and Japan; all of these were under either international licensing agreements or joint venture agreements. These joint venture agreements were eventually bought by the Office Depot Corporation.

Again in 1998, Office Depot made another savvy business maneuver, the merged with Viking Office Products, a public company, who also happened to be the world’s largest direct mail marketer of office products. If this isn’t enough to have sold most on a sure investment for any sound financial mind, Office Depot wasn’t finished just yet. Later in 1998 Office Depot aggressively joined the internet sales market. The award winning officedepot.com was instrumental in clearly showing the world that Office Depot had established itself as the industry leader. Just before the turn of the century Office Depot launched