Some or all of Staples may be up for sale again. Private equity firm Sycamore Partners acquired the struggling office supply retail giant for $6.9 billion in 2017. Now, the PE firm is looking to "take most of its cash out of Staples through a recapitalization that will saddle the company with roughly $1 billion of additional debt," according to Bloomberg.Longer term, Sycamore may consider a complete exit from the office supply retailer -- potentially through an IPO in the next year or so, the report adds. ChannelE2E has not independently confirmed the report. Still, the IPO chatter could be a test balloon designed to attract potential Staples suitors to Sycamore's negotiating table, sources tell ChannelE2E.Staples has evolved quite a bit since the initial Sycamore investment in 2017. Among the key moves:
- More acquisitions: The retailer and/or its PE parent have since moved to acquire HiTouch Business Services, Essendant and DEX Imaging.
- Coworking: The company has experimented with coworking concepts for small business customers -- though a partnership with Workbar on that front ended in February 2019.