Randstad Holding NV said today its offer for shares of Vedior NV was successful and a legal merger of the companies is the next step. Randstad's acquisition of Vedior will make it the second-largest staffing company in the world.

"We regard this successful tender result as a vote of confidence in the combined group," said Randstad CEO Ben Noteboom. "We plan to move forward swiftly to be able to make optimal use of our combined strengths as soon as possible."

Randstad said shares tendered under the offer represented 78.48% of Vedior shares and have an aggregate value of euro2.54 billion (US$3.90 billion). Randstad already held 14.98% of Vedior shares.