The story
Founded by Brad Jacobs on Sep 1997.1
United Rentals was founded in September 1997. Then-chairman and CEO Hector Salazar Jr. planned to grow the company through acquisition and consolidation, beginning in October 1997 with six small leasing companies scattered across North America.
In December 1997, three months after forming, United Rentals began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol URI.
In June 1998, it acquired U.S. Rentals, Inc., for a sum variously reported as $1.2 billion and $1.31 billion. The acquisition made United Rentals the largest equipment rental company in North America.
On December 26, 2006, United Rentals announced the sale of their Highway Technology division to HTS Acquisition, Inc.
On July 23, 2007, United Rentals announced a definitive agreement to sell itself to Cerberus Capital Management in a transaction valued at approximately $6.6 billion, including the assumption of approximately $2.6 billion in debt obligations. URI's board of directors approved the merger agreement and recommended that stockholders do the same.
On November 15, 2007, the company announced that Cerberus was not prepared to proceed with the purchase on the terms set forth in its merger agreement. Cerberus confirmed that there had not been a material adverse change at United Rentals, which would have let it bow out of the deal without penalty. On December 21, 2007, a Delaware Chancery Court ruling denied United Rentals' attempt to force Cerberus to follow through on the takeover bid. However, the court did order Cerberus to pay the $100 million termination fee stipulated in the original agreement.
On December 16, 2011, United Rentals and RSC Holdings, Inc. announced that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement, under which United Rentals would acquire RSC in a cash-and-stock transaction. The largest merger in rental equipment history was finalized on April 30, 2012, boosting URI to what was at the time a 13 percent market share of the equipment rental industry.
In 2013, United Rentals moved its headquarters from Greenwich, Connecticut, to Stamford, Connecticut. On March 9, 2014, the company announced plans to acquire National Pump for $780 million. This made United Rentals the second-largest pump rental company in North America. The transaction was finalized on March 31, 2014. In June 2014, United Rentals was first listed on the Fortune 500. Based on its 2013 revenues of $4.955 billion, the company was ranked exactly 500th. It had previously made it as high as 517 in 2002, before falling back down. On September 19, 2014, URI was added to the S&P 500 Index.
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On January 25, 2017, United Rentals announced the purchase of NES Rentals, a competing general equipment rentals company, for approximately $965 million. It completed the acquisition on April 3, 2017. On August 22, 2017, United Rentals announced it had acquired all power generation assets, primarily mobile generator sets, from Cummins Inc. To maintain fleet and customer service continuity, a small number of Cummins employees joined United Rentals. On October 2, 2017, United Rentals announced it had completed the acquisition of Neff Corporation, a competing general equipment rentals company, for approximately $1.3 billion. In the transaction, United Rentals acquired approximately $867 million in equipment (based on original equipment cost) and Neff's 69 rental facility locations in the United States. On October 4, 2017, United Rentals announced it had acquired the assets of Superior Speedie Portable Services, Inc. and Superior Logistics Services, Inc. (together "Superior Speedie"), which includes a fleet of over 8,000 portable toilets and over 130 restroom trailers. This new specialty division is named United Rentals Reliable Onsite Services.
On March 1, 2018, United Rentals acquired certain assets of Industrial Rental Services, LLC, expanding its Tool Solutions specialty division to include two-way radio communications and industrial blind services.
On July 2, 2018, United Rentals announced it had agreed to purchase BakerCorp International for about $715 million in cash, enhancing its Pump Solutions division. BakerCorp is a leading provider of tank, pump, filtration, and trench shoring rentals, with about 950 employees, 46 locations in North America, and another 11 locations in Europe. Following the transaction, United Rentals changed the name of its Pump Solutions division to United Rentals Fluid Solutions.
On September 11, 2018, United Rentals announced an agreement to add BlueLine Rental, one of the top ten rental equipment companies in North America, to its growing list of acquisitions. United Rentals' board of directors unanimously approved the deal to purchase BlueLine from Platinum Equity for about $2.1 billion in cash. BlueLine had 114 locations in 25 US states, Canada, and Puerto Rico, and approximately 46,000 rental assets marketed primarily to mid-sized and local accounts.
On May 25 2021, United Rentals acquired General Finance Corporation, a provider of mobile storage and office containers, mobile offices and modular building solutions operating in North America, New Zealand and Australia. At the time of acquisition, General Finance operated brands including Pac Van, Container King, Southern Frac, Lone Star Tank Rental, and Royal Wolf. On December 7, 2022, United Rentals completed the acquisition of Ahern Rentals, Inc. for approximately $2.0 billion in cash, adding Ahern's 106 rental facilities and approximately 66,000 rental assets. On March 15, 2024, United Access completed the acquisition of Yak Access, Yak Mat and New South Access & Environmental Solutions from Platinum Equity for approximately $1.1 billion.
From Wikipedia’s article on United Rentals, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6