SPLS Staples, Inc.

Office Depot Inc., in the midst of regulatory pushback over its tie-up with rival Staples Inc., reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter profit and revenue amid uncertainty surrounding the proposed marriage.

The company reported sales declines across its segments, including its business-solutions division, and the company blamed its performance on the regulatory fight.

"The protracted regulatory review of the pending Staples acquisition continues to have a substantial disruptive impact on our business," said Roland Smith, Office Depot's chairman and chief executive.

Staples has received opposition from the Federal Trade Commission over its deal to buy Office Depot. The regulator filed a lawsuit in December seeking to block the deal, saying it would be anticompetitive.

Last week, a federal judge heard closing arguments in the government's antitrust challenge to the planned merger, though the judge's duty in deciding on an injunction was only to decide whether the FTC had established the building blocks of its case—not to conclude with finality whether the proposed merger would violate antitrust laws.

Staples agreed in February 2015 to buy Office Depot for about $6.3 billion. In 2013, the FTC approved Office Depot's takeover of the smaller OfficeMax.

The FTC argues the tie-up would mean higher prices and fewer options for big companies that buy office supplies in bulk; however, Staples has received approval from the European Commission. The companies in January said they agreed to extend the deadline to complete the tie-up by three months, to May 16.

Office Depot's results have been weighed down recently amid a declining market as an increasingly digital workplace continues to hurt sales.

Office Depot closed nine stores in the period, ending the quarter with 1,555 stores. Office Depot has said it expects to close more than 50 additional stores in 2016 for a total of at least 400 closures under its restructuring plan.

In all for the quarter, Office Depot earned $46 million, compared with $45 million a year ago. On a per-share basis, earnings remained flat at 8 cents. Excluding items, earnings were 10 cents a share. Revenue slipped to 9% to $3.54 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected per-share earnings of 12 cents on revenue of $3.62 billion.

For the latest period, revenue at Office Depot's North American retail segment, its largest line of business by sales, slipped 8.9% to $1.51 billion.

Sales in North American business solutions unit slipped 7%, in part on "customer attrition and lower customer additions, primarily because of the substantial business disruption related to the pending acquisition by Staples," the company said.

Revenue in the international division slipped 10%, hurt by foreign exchange volatility. On constant-currency basis, the decline was less pronounced at 6%, due to market pressures and the pending Staples acquisition.

Write to Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2016 09:15 ET (13:15 GMT)

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