READING, Pa. – Shamrock Pest Management, headquartered in Middletown, N.Y., has entered into an agreement to join Ehrlich Pest Control. The announcement was made by Victor Hammel, Ehrlich President and CEO of Rentokil North America.

Shamrock services Westchester, Rockland, Ulster, Sullivan, and Orange Counties in New York as well as a portion of northern New Jersey. Shamrock was co-owned by Brian and Benette DeVera. The company has a strong residential focus and was well-known for the Clover Program, an ongoing pest prevention program.

“Shamrock is a well-known family owned pco in the New York state area,” said Hammel. “Brian DeVera believed in providing quality service and created a very loyal customer base, “Hammel added. Employment is being offered to all of Shamrock’s Technicians and Operations Managers through Ehrlich’s Middletown district office.

Rentokil Initial plc acquired Ehrlich Pest Control in 2006. The company has served as Rentokil’s platform for growth in North America.

We have received a lot of calls and emails over the last few days regarding Rollins’ acquisition of HomeTeam Pest Defense, including, do “Do you have a copy of the purchase agreement?” I’ve included in this week’s report the most commonly asked questions and answers.
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Mar. 31, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) –

ATLANTA (AP) - Rollins Inc. (NYSE:ROL) said Monday it has agreed to buy Centex (NYSE:CTX) Corp.’s pest-control business, HomeTeam Pest Defense, for $137 million.

The exterminator company, which also owns Orkin, PCO Services, Western Pest Services and The Industrial Fumigant Co., expects the deal to close in early April. (more…)

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — Copesan Solutions has added two new Partners with solid pest management backgrounds and history to its network of service providers. JP McHale Pest Management of Buchanan, N.Y., and Viking Termite & Pest Control of Bridgewater, N.J., will join the 70-plus Partners already servicing Copesan clients across North America. (more…)

Last month our business valuation department was engaged by a pest control client, Kevin, owner of XYZ Pest Control, to advise him on setting up a stock gifting program. His goals are to gift stock annually to his children over the next 10 years or so, taking advantage of the Federal Annual Gift Tax exemption as a vehicle for saving for their college education. When we reviewed the financial and operational documents on XYZ, we realized that Kevin had made a few acquisitions over the last few years. XYZ’s most recent was the acquisition of a competitor - the purchase of the assets of an S corporation for $1,050,000. Upon digging into the numbers a little deeper, we realized something quite peculiarly, though not particularly surprising. The buyer and seller had allocated a very large portion of the purchase price, $480,000 to be exact, to a non-competition agreement. In this article, you are going to learn why this alarmed us and what you can do to avoid tax mistakes while doing deals.
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