Office Depot Teams up with Google to Provide Online Marketing & Collaboration Tools for Small Business Customers

Business Wire, May 13, 2008

New Online Business Resource Center to Help Small Businesses Get Noticed

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- Office Depot[R] (NYSE:ODP), a leading global provider of office products and services, today launched a new online Business Resource Center with Google, providing small business customers with the tools they need to communicate, collaborate, and start marketing themselves. The new Business Resource Center is available online at www.officedepot.com.

Through the new Business Resource Center, Office Depot customers have access to a variety of Google products to grow their business, including:

Google AdWords[TM] - Hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide use AdWords to effectively and cost-efficiently advertise their products and services online, reaching targeted audiences of new customers.

Google Apps[TM] - With Google Apps, including Gmail[TM], Google Calendar[TM], and Google Docs[TM], small businesses can access simple, powerful, and affordable communication and collaboration tools.

Google Local Business Center[TM] - Businesses use Local Business Center to create free online listings that include an address, phone number, hours of operation, and photos. The listings can be found on Google search and Google Maps[TM], and can link to the company's website.

"As one of the world's largest e-commerce retailers, Office Depot knows what it takes to be successful in the online space, and is excited to provide small businesses with innovative tools that will help their business to be successful as well," said Jeffrey Rohling, Vice President of Direct Sales for Office Depot. "By working with Google, we will be able to provide Office Depot customers real tools that will help them to grow and expand amid a very challenging business environment."

"Office Depot has a loyal base of small business customers, and we're excited about the opportunity to help these businesses cost-efficiently use the Internet to drive their success," said Eric Stein, Director of Local Markets for Google. "Our suite of effective and simple-to-use programs really helps small businesses take the guesswork out of their initial online marketing and internal organization efforts."

To learn more about the Office Depot Business Resource Center, please visit www.officedepot.com.

About Office Depot

Every day, Office Depot is Taking Care of Business for millions of customers around the globe. For the local corner store as well as Fortune 500 companies, Office Depot provides products, and services to its customers through 1,670 worldwide retail stores, a dedicated sales force, top-rated catalogs and a $4.9 billion e-commerce operation. Office Depot has annual sales of approximately $15.5 billion and employs about 49,000 associates around the world. The Company provides more office products and services to more customers in more countries than any other company, and currently sells to customers directly or through affiliates in 43 countries.

Office Depot's common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index. Additional press information can be found at: http://mediarelations.officedepot.com.

Google, AdWords, Gmail, Google Apps, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Maps are trademarks of Google Inc.