You’ve seen the headlines: the death of retail, the retailpocalypse, the end of the shopping mall as you know it. Well, add another line to that narrative: Staples, the office supply store, has agreed to sell itself off for nearly $7 billion. Sales and profits at Staples have been dropping steadily for four years. So who would want to pony up $7 billion for office supplies, and why?

Click the audio player above to hear the full story.