SEC Settles Enforcement Action Against Office Depot

On October 21, the SEC announced that Office Depot, Inc., its CEO and its CFO at the time had agreed to settlements regarding alleged violations of Regulation FD resulting from selective disclosure to analysts and institutional investors that the Company would not meet consensus EPS estimates for the second quarter of 2007. The selective disclosures, allegedly made by investor relations personnel at the direction of the CEO and then-CFO, did not explicitly state that the Company would not meet consensus EPS estimates, but rather signaled this conclusion by referring to prior cautionary statements made by the Company and by comparable companies.