The parent company of Staples Promotional Products (asi/120601), the second-largest distributor in the promotional products industry, remains keen to acquire Office Depot.

USR Parent, whose holdings include Staples’ retail stores and operations, wants to acquire the consumer business of ODP Corp. for $1 billion in cash.

ODP is the parent company of Office Depot and OfficeMax. First proposed in June, the offer, if accepted, would bring 1,100 Office Depot and OfficeMax retail stores, officedepot.com, and Office Depot and OfficeMax intellectual property under the USR umbrella.

Past attempts by Staples to acquire Office Depot were met with resistance from federal regulators, but USR says it’s making progress with the Federal Trade Commission this time around on the potential acquisition.

“With the company’s full cooperation, Staples is confident that the parties will be able to expeditiously obtain the necessary antitrust approvals for the proposed acquisition of the company’s consumer business,” Staples stated.

Whether the deal will come to fruition remains to be seen.

In August, ODP shared updated plans for splitting its company into two distinct, independent publicly traded companies. One would be a consumer-focused business, which would include Office Depot and OfficeMax stores and a related e-commerce platform. The other would key in on the business-to-business market. 

In January, Office Depot rejected a proposed acquisition bid from Staples/USR, but said it’s open to an alternative deal.

Headquartered in Framingham, MA, Staples was formerly a publicly traded company before private equity firm Sycamore Partners purchased it in 2017 and took it private.

Staples previously tried to acquire Office Depot in 2016, but the FTC blocked that $6.3 billion deal, saying the merger could reduce competition for nationwide contracts for office supplies.

In 1996, Staples and Office Depot agreed to merge, but a government lawsuit nixed the deal. The successful suit contended that the merger would have meant higher prices for pens, paper and other office supplies.

Executives in Staples’ promo division have said they can’t comment on what, if any, impacts or opportunities an acquisition of Office Depot could have on Staples’ promotional products business, as nothing has been finalized.

With estimated 2020 North American promotional product revenue of $643.6 million, Staples Promotional Products ranked second on Counselor’s most recent list of the 40 largest distributors in the industry.