March 18, 2005
Fortune Brands, Inc. and General Binding Corporation (GBC) announce spin off.
On March 16, Fortune Brands, Inc. and General Binding Corporation (GBC) announced that Fortune Brands will spin off to shareholders its ACCO World Corporation office products unit, and that ACCO will acquire GBC to create the world's largest supplier of branded office products with combined revenues of nearly $2 billion. Willkie partner David Boston and associate Heath Golden represented Deutsche Bank Securities, one of the financial advisors to the target. As reported in the March 17 New York Times, the merger of ACCO and GBC will establish an office products powerhouse with a broad portfolio of leading brands. The new company, to be called Acco Brands Corporation, will combine ACCO's Swingline, Wilson Jones, Kensington, Day-Timer and Rexel brands with GBC's GBC and Quartet brands.
