Staples offers to buy Office Depot owner's consumer business for $1B

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Staples said on Friday it had offered to buy Office Depot owner ODP Corp's consumer business for $1 billion, the latest effort by the office supplies retailer to acquire its rival's assets.

ETSY BUYS DEPOP FOR $1.6B

Staples offered about $18.27 per share for the business, which it said represents a premium of about 43% to the 30-day average closing price of ODP's share as of June 2.

Last month, ODP said it would spin off its distribution platform that schools, offices and other businesses use to buy supplies into a separate company.

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Staples is now proposing to buy ODP's consumer business that includes the Office Depot and OfficeMax retail stores businesses, which it believes is the remaining business in ODP's planned spin off.

ODP did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Its shares were up about 3% at $45.90.

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(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal and Mehr Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)

EU Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 Vaccine For Adolescents

Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and BioNTech SE’s (BNTX) COVID-19 vaccine has received the conditional marketing authorization in the European Union for use in adolescents 12 to 15 years of age.

The authorization of the vaccine Comirnaty (BNT162b2) is valid in all 27 EU member states.

The EU decision was based on data from a pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial, which enrolled 2,260 participants aged 12 to 15 years. Participants received two 30 µg doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Results from the trial, showed a vaccine efficacy of 100% in participants with or without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection and robust antibody responses.

Comirnaty has already received the conditional marketing authorization from the European Commission to prevent COVID-19 in people from 12 years of age.

In addition, Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and BioNTech said that the pediatric study evaluating the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine in children 6 months to 11 years of age is ongoing.

Pfizer and BioNTech expect to have definitive readouts and submit for an Emergency Use Authorization or a variation to Conditional Marketing Authorizations for two cohorts, including children 2-5 years of age and 5-11 years of age, in September.

The readout and submission for the cohort of children 6 months to 2 years of age are expected in the fourth quarter.

No plan to print more currency notes, says Das

‘Governments’ borrowing handled well’

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said there was no plan to print more currency notes.

The Governor’s statement comes amid suggestions from certain quarters that the RBI print more currency notes to support the economy ravaged by the spread of COVID-19, and protect jobs.

“Central banks, with regard to printing of notes, have their own models and have their own assessment,” said Mr. Das. “I have seen many remarks [on printing of notes] that have come,” he said while answering a query from The Hindu.

“The central banks, with regard to printing of notes, take decisions based on so many complex factors relating to financial stability, inflation and stability of exchange rates,” he said.

“At the moment, the borrowing requirements of both States and the Centre had been handled very successfully last year.”

Black and Hispanic women are still behind as jobs rebound.

By Jeanna Smialek

Black and Hispanic women are lagging furthest in returning to work.

Percent change in the number of employed people since before the pandemic, by race, ethnicity and gender

PNB turns ₹586-crore profit in Q4

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Friday posted a standalone profit of ₹586.3 crore for the fourth quarter ended March, aided by a good increase in interest income.

The second largest public sector lender had reported a loss of ₹697.2 crore in January-March period of 2019-20.

Total income rose to ₹22,531.7 crore from ₹16,388.3 crore. Interest earned rose 36% to ₹18,789.5 crore, PNB said in a regulatory filing.

The numbers were not strictly comparable as Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India were merged into PNB effective April 1, 2020, it said. Net NPAs dipped to 5.7% against 5.8% in the year-earlier period.

Gaetz friend faces sentencing in August, judge accepts pleas

ORLANDO, Fla. — A central figure in the Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz will be sentenced in August after a judge accepted a plea deal requiring him to cooperate with prosecutors.

Joel Greenberg, 36, pleaded guilty last month to six of the nearly three dozen charges he faced, including sex trafficking of a minor, and he admitted that he had paid at least one underage girl to have sex with him and other men.

Gaetz was not mentioned in the plea agreement. But Greenberg’s cooperation — as a key figure in the investigation and a close ally of Gaetz’s — may escalate the potential legal and political liability facing the firebrand Republican congressman from the Florida Panhandle.

Gaetz has denied the allegations and any accusation of wrongdoing and has said repeatedly he will not resign from Congress.

Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector, will be sentenced in Orlando on Aug. 19. A federal judge accepted his guilty pleas on Thursday.