Toronto-based IESI-BFC has reached an agreement to buy Burlington, Ontario, Canada-based Waste Services. The transaction is slated to close in the first quarter of 2010.

According to the terms of the agreement, Waste Service stockholders will receive 0.5833 shares of IESI-BFC stock for each Waste Service share they own. The combined company will be headed by Keith Carrigan, currently vice chairman and CEO of IESI-BFC, and will have more than 6,000 employees serving commercial, industrial and residential customers in the United States and Canada. Combined revenue is expected to reach about $1.5 billion a year.

The companies say the transaction should result in between $25 million to $30 million in operational savings within two years of the merger’s closing.