takeover

Federal Signal have found yet more value in Sirit upping their offer a second time this week - this time to 46c/share 3c or 7% more in an apparent bidding war with a mystery rival for control of the Toronto based electronic toller.

Shareholders of Xerox and ACS both gave their approval today to the copier company's buy of ACS, the leading customer service provider  for electronic tolling in the US. The vote was 96% in favor among Xerox stockholders and 86% among the owners of ACS.

Sirit, the leading electronic toll supplier to California is being acquired by Federal Signal. The Toronto Canada based company says it has signed a "definitive agreement to be acquired" by Federal Signal in a $48m (C$49.5m) deal.

London UK-based Steer Davies Gleave (SDG) transport consultants have acquired an eight person transportation planning team from Boston-based Charles River Associates, officially named CRA International. This was previously misreported as a much larger acquisition.

CRAI will continue looking for transportation consulting work despite the SDG press release saying their transportation practice was being acquired by SDG.

Cape May County New Jersey took over the Beesley's Point Bridge today (2008-12-30) paying a token one dollar in a transaction to acquire title to the private toll bridge which has been closed to traffic since June 23 2004. As part of the transaction the bridge company repaid a $900k loan from the NJDOT from 1997.

ACS of Dallas TX, the company that does E-ZPass in New York, New Jersey, and several other states has announced its Appomattox Courthouse meeting. All the directors opposing chairman and major shareholder Darwin Deason have hauled up the white flag. The bloody ACS civil war is at an end.

There's a splendid stoush at the top of ACS. Darwin Deason, board chairman and a major shareholder has formally called on all his fellow directors to resign, saying they have lost shareholder (read: Deason) support. Deason will present a slate of his own directors at the next annual general meeting in May, he says.

A project to build a rail line (Dulles Rail) in the median of the Dulles Toll Road is unlikely to get a high enough cost-effectiveness rating to be eligible for federal funds, throwing into doubt a proposed takeover of the Dulles Toll Road by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).

Apogee to Hagler-Bailly to PB

ISRAEL

Old Hughes Unit HTMS Stays Raytheon

TAKEOVER

Amtech TSG being bought by big barcode company

MEXICO

Government bails out half its toll companies