Court: Levan ODP nominees can be nominated

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. Office Depot reported that it was disappointed with a Delaware Court ruling that grants Alan Levan and his company Woodbridge the right to nominate two directors for election to the Office Depot board of directors at the upcoming annual meeting scheduled for April 23.

“Office Depot welcomes the Delaware court's conclusion that our advance notice bylaw applies to director nominations. We note that Alan Levan was unable to comply with the terms of the bylaw, which is meant to protect the interests of all Office Depot stockholders, as he did not even own Office Depot shares at the time advance notice was required to be given. Because of this, Levan sued to have the bylaw deemed inapplicable to his proxy fight, and we are disappointed by the court's reading of Office Depot's notice of meeting to permit Levan's nominees to stand for election. We are currently reviewing our options with respect to this ruling,” Office Depot said in a statement released on April 15.

The company went on to say that it still believes its shareholders should reject Levan's nominees.