Staples owner USR Parent on Monday proposed acquiring ODP, the parent company of Office Depot, for $2.1 billion. A similar deal in 2015 was blocked by a federal judge after the Federal Trade Commission objected.

The Fastener Distributor Index from FCH Sourcing Network and R.W. Baird came in at 62.6 for December, up from November's 54.5 and the highest reading since July 2018. FCH's Forward-Looking Indicator also rose in December to 65.7, the highest level of 2020.

As the price of storage comes down, more enterprises are gathering more data, with the overall collection rate expected to increase as much as 12% annually. Prashant Sharma, co-founder and chief technical officer at Secuvy, outlines how artificial intelligence can ride to the rescue to satisfy privacy concerns.

High demand for goods during the coronavirus pandemic is boosting orders for commercial trucks, according to ACT Research, as preliminary net orders for Class 8 trucks in December topped 50,000 units for the second straight month. "We are looking forward to a strong 2021 and feel very positive going into the new year," said Magnus Koeck, vice president of strategy at Volvo Trucks North America.

Augmented reality is becoming a more viable marketing tool as 5G technology, AR smartphones and wearable devices become more widespread, with Generation Z leading adoption on Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, writes Faisal Galaria. He predicts newer technologies such as lidar and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping will expand practical promotional potential for product discovery and trials prior to purchase, and adoption will be driven further by sheltering consumer needs and behaviors.

Some 42% of global event planners intend to host hybrid events this year, in comparison to 14% who said the same in 2020, according to Global DMC Partners research. Just 30% intend to replace in-person events with fully virtual events in 2021, down from 72% in 2020.

Having doubts about your leadership abilities can be good when you use it to improve your listening, humility and preparation, writes Dan Rockwell. "In complicated situations and turbulent times, the person with easy answers is an idiot," he writes.

Leaders need to keep up their enthusiasm and passion for the job, and they can do so by continuously improving their craft and remembering what it's like to be a new member of the team, writes David Dye. "You've solved this problem 55 times, but your newest person is just learning and the magic of expanding their capacity is waiting for your leadership," he writes.

Don't miss NAW's first-ever Digital Summit, Jan. 27-28. Register by Jan. 15 and receive a special gift box from NAW that includes items for you to use on each day! The NAW Digital Summit is focused on helping you lead through a time of transition. You'll hear from distribution CEOs, network with your peers, get the 2021-22 economic forecast, find out what the Biden agenda means for distribution, plus much more. Use special 5- and 10-pack registrations to bring your team!

In this capstone webinar for the NAW Series: How Technology Will Transform Wholesale Distribution, Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein will summarize what they learned from the research conducted with distributors, suppliers and customers. They'll provide a roadmap forward: a specific set of recommendations on the strategic actions that the distribution industry -- and individual companies -- should take to fend off competitors, outflank the disruptors and prepare to take market share and improve profitability. Register for this free Jan. 21 webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern. Sponsored by Unilog and PROS.

Pradip Krishnadevarajan, co-author of NAW's "Pricing Optimization: Striking the Right Balance for Margin Advantage," discusses how "pricing" is one of the most complex day-to-day decisions in any business environment, and the distribution industry is no exception. In fact, pricing is the most critical profitability lever for distributors due to their position in the supply chain, ever-increasing competition, and other business forces like commoditization and globalization. There are six primary pricing variables that he calls, the Six Faces of a Pricing Cube. Read his post.