Paper manufacturer to buy Office Max chain

Boise Cascade Corp., a wood and paper products maker, has agreed to acquire OfficeMax Inc. for nearly $1.2 billion in a deal that would more than double the size of its office products distribution business.

OfficeMax is the third-biggest U.S. office products retailer, behind Office Depot and Staples.

Under the deal announced early Monday, Boise Cascade will pay $9 a share for OfficeMax, a 25 percent premium over OfficeMax’s closing price of $7.18 a share on Friday.

About half of Idaho-based Boise Cascade’s $7.4 billion in revenues comes from selling office products. Buying OfficeMax would allow it to better compete with Staples, the largest office retailer, and Office Depot, the second-largest.

“This is really one of those transactions where one plus one equals much more than two,” said Michael Feuer, OfficeMax’s co-founder, chairman and CEO.

Above, shoppers walk in and out of an Office Max store Monday in Columbus, Ohio.

Kansas City, Mo.

Interstate Bakeries reports quarterly loss

Interstate Bakeries Corp., the maker of Wonder bread and Hostess snacks, Monday reported a loss in its fiscal fourth quarter as sales fell 1.8 percent to $818 million.

After the news, the company’s shares fell $1.22, or 10 percent, to close at $10.48 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

A reduction in branded sales volume, coupled with increases in ingredient costs, energy and employee-related costs, resulted in the quarter’s loss of $4.6 million, or 10 cents a share, the Kansas City, Mo.-based company said. In the same quarter last year, the company earned $22 million, or 45 cents a share.

Analysts were expecting a loss of 3 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call.

Agriculture

Farmland’s loss narrows

Kansas City, Mo.-based Farmland Industries reported Monday that its third quarter produced smaller losses than a year ago.

The bankrupt agriculture cooperative reported a net loss of $47.2 million in the quarter compared with a loss of $189.5 million during the same period a year ago.

The company said earnings were helped by its seventh consecutive quarterly increase in income from its pork business. The company’s beef business also reported a 19 percent increase in revenue.

Telecommunications

Sprint to review auditors

Overland Park-based Sprint Corp. said on Monday it would review outside auditors for 2004 after its current accountants, Ernst & Young, set up aggressive tax shelters that forced the long-distance telephone company’s two top executives to resign.

The search for an auditor is expected to take about 90 days. The four major accounting firms will be invited to participate in the review process.

At Sprint’s annual meeting in May, about 38 percent of the company’s shareholders voted against the appointment of Ernst & Young, which had been the company’s accounting firm since 1965.