Staples to Acquire Phone Firm and Relocate Several Stores

Staples Inc. said Thursday it will acquire a phone services company, beef up its online sales operation and relocate several stores in an effort to better serve small businesses.

The nation’s second-largest office supplies retailer behind Office Depot Inc. said it will pay $150 million for Claricom Holdings Inc., which provides paging, messaging, videoconferencing, long-distance and Internet services, from a group including Boston-based investment firm Bain Capital Inc. Milford, Conn.-based Claricom Holdings, a closely held company, has annual sales of about $200 million.

“Telecom services and products are probably a fairly expensive venture for the average small business,” Dan Binder, an analyst at Brown Bros. Harriman & Co., told Bloomberg News. “Staples can sell it to them at prices competitive with what large companies are getting.”

Staples also plans to invest an additional $10 million next year in its Internet sales business, Staples.com, which it will establish as a separate unit.

Staples also said it will relocate 58 of its older stores, mostly in California and the Northeast, to larger sites near their current locations.

The stores involved can’t be expanded and upgraded to the Staples “Concept 97” store model, introduced last year, that contains more comprehensive business products and services, including copying and technology centers.

Staples said it will take a $57-million charge in the fiscal fourth quarter as a result of relocating stores.

Shares of Westboro, Mass.-based Staples rose 19 cents Thursday to close at $39.81 on Nasdaq.