Waste Industries USA Finalizes Privatization

Shareholders of Waste Industries USA, Raleigh, N.C., have approved the company’s privatization transaction for $38 per share. The transaction is expected to be complete today. The company’s shares were de-listed from the Nasdaq exchange before trading opened today.

The transaction involves a merger agreement with an investment group led by Lonnie Poole Jr., the company's founder and chairman; Jim Perry, the company's president and CEO; and financial partners Macquarie Infrastructure Partners and Goldman Sachs.

On Dec. 18, 2007, the company announced it had accepted the group’s $544 million total offer, an increase from the original $36.75 offer. However, the next day, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Superior Court of Wake County, N.C., alleging that the original sale price was unfair and that the company's board of directors breached their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. The suit was later withdrawn.