Laidlaw Gives Update About their merger with First Student

First Student's parent company FirstGroup announced their plans to buy out Laidlaw International, a major school bus contractor (and competitor to First Student), as well as the owners of Greyhound, back in February. Laidlaw is finally giving an update on the proposed merger.

Some interesting facts from this press release:
Laidlaw and FirstGroup gave additional time to the US Department of Justice (Anti-trust division) to review the proposed merger.
While the decision is technically up to the Anti-Trust guys in Washington, they've been very merger-happy as of late so be surprised if the doesn't get approval.
Laidlaw is expecting the deal to close and for the two companies to merge in early October.
While it's a close date, approval has not been given yet. It would, however, be interesting since this means the two companies have time to work out the kinks with Laidlaw's schools buses and First Student, especially in areas where contracts went to both companies.
Both parties have given letters to certain state Attorney Generals, notifying them of their intention to close the deal in the next weeks.

What does this mean for us?
Well, it's not clear yet. In areas with just First Student, very little, with the exception some of the executives at the top of the company might be shuffled around.
In areas with just Laidlaw, aside from being brought in to First, which seems to have a company-wide problem with having quality service, a name change, and that's about it.

Where it gets complicated is in areas where contracts were given to both First Student and Laidlaw. While I suspect they'll finish out the year normally, next year it might mean some changes as far as the local offices go, but we'll see if the merger is approved.

In either way, we, the people who must use First's (and Laidlaw's) services, lose. Less competition means more money being demanded by First, and increases their control on the market. And in a market with very few national competitors, that's vital.