Dive Brief:

• Office supply retailer Staples is reportedly in advance talks to buy competitor Office Depot, said multiple sources Tuesday.
• The merger would combine two of the biggest names in office supplies, with roughly 4,400 stores and combined annual sales of around $34 billion. 
• Office Depot acquired rival office supply retailer OfficeMax in 2013 for $976 million. 

Dive Insight:

These reports come less than a month after activist investor Starboard Value made a public appeal to Staples' CEO Ronald Sargent for an acquisition of Office Depot—and it seems like the company is listening. A merger would help the retailer stave off competition from Amazon and big box stores like Target, which is getting more intense with the introduction of fast (and increasingly cheap) delivery. 

But Staples and Office Depot would have to worry about antitrust concerns from regulators, as the merger of the two companies would likely draw scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission and others.