Laidlaw

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One of Laidlaw's 40,000 yellow school buses

Laidlaw, currently organized as Laidlaw International, Inc. NYSE: LI (and with corporate headquarters in Naperville, Illinois), is a North American corporation which is involved with contract school bus service, intercity passenger route and charter bus service, and contract paratransit and public transit services in the United States and Canada.

Since 1972, Laidlaw has grown primarily through acquisitions of other companies and contracting of services formerly directly provided by government entities. It is the largest provider of intercity bus services, contract public transit and paratransit, and contract school bus service in the United States and Canada.

Laidlaw owns Greyhound Lines in the United States, Greyhound Canada, and operates a number of Gray Line Sightseeing franchises in major North American cities.

As of February 2007, FirstGroup PLC, a bus and rail transport operator in the United Kingdom with subsidiaries in North America, is expected to acquire Laidlaw International, Inc. for approximately USD $3.6 billion including the assumption of $0.8 billion of debt.^[1]^[2]^[3] The deal is subject to FirstGroup and Laidlaw shareholders approval and receipt of necessary US anti-trust approvals.

1 History
2 Fleet (Canada)
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Laidlaw began in 1924 when founder Robert Laidlaw created Laidlaw Transit, a trucking service company in Ontario, Canada.

Beginning in 1972, under the leadership of Michael DeGroote, Laidlaw, Inc. began growing through acquisitions of other companies when it acquired a Canadian intercity and charter bus company. In 1979, it acquired a Canadian contract school bus business. In 1978 it entered the U.S. solid waste industry. In 1983, Laidlaw entered the U.S. school bus transportation sector with its acquisition of ARA Transportation, a major contract school bus provider which also owned a Wayne Corporation bus dealership. In 1984, Laidlaw Inc. exited the trucking business, as the company began a consolidating smaller school bus contracting companies in the U.S. and Canada.

In 1988, Laidlaw, Inc. purchased a controlling interest in itself from Canadian Pacific Limited, parent of Canadian Pacific Railway. In a rare divestiture in its school bus contracting sector, in 1990, after losing its major school bus contract in Norfolk, Virginia to a governmental conversion to district-self-operation, Laidlaw sold the rest of its urban-suburban bus line, school bus contracting business, and related assets in the Norfolk area to Virginia Overland Transportation, a long-time operator of public service transportation in Virginia, and a smaller industry consolidator there.

In the 1990s, Laidlaw continued to acquire hundreds of smaller school bus and public transit contractors in the U.S. and Canada. These also included major competitors, including Mayflower Contract Services in 1995, and National Bus Service in 1996. Around the same time, the company acquired American Medical Response, a nation-wide U.S. ambulance service provider and CareLine, Inc., U.S. ambulance consolidator of smaller ambulance contractors.

In 1998, a watershed year, Laidlaw Inc. acquired Greyhound Lines U.S. operations, Greyhound Canada, the DAVE Companies (specialists in paratransit) and emergency management companies EmCare and Spectrum Emergency Care.

Between 1997 and 1999, Laidlaw, Inc. exited the solid waste business after incurring heavy losses through its investments in Safety-Kleen and Greyhound Lines. After almost 20 years of expansion, Laidlaw Inc. filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in June 2001.

Laidlaw International, Inc. listed its common shares on the New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: LI), on February 10, 2004, and emerged from reorganization on June 23, 2003 as the successor to Laidlaw Inc. Canadian Pacific sold its remaining 17% interest in Laidlaw Inc. The company has since sold its Emergency Medical Services contract operations to new owners.

As of February 2007, FirstGroup PLC, a bus and rail transport operator in the United Kingdom with subsidiaries in North America, is expected to acquire Laidlaw International, Inc. for approximately USD $3.6 billion including the assumption of $0.8 billion of debt.^[4]^[5]^[6] The deal is subject to FirstGroup and Laidlaw shareholders approval and receipt of necessary US anti-trust approvals.