NEW YORK – Costs related to Staples turnaround plan helped drive down the office supplier’s fourth-quarter net income by 72 percent. Its quarterly revenue and financial outlook for the year missed Wall Street’s expectations.

Staples, which has 1,547 stores in the U.S. and 339 stores in Canada, is the largest office supply retailer, a sector hit hard by the recession and slow to recover.

Its earnings report comes two weeks after Office Depot Inc. and OfficeMax said they would combine to better compete against their larger rival as well as Internet retailers like Amazon.com and discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.