ServiceMaster is being taken private in a cash deal worth $4.7 billion.
Shareholders of ServiceMaster (Charts) will receive $15.625 a share, a premium of 16 percent over Friday's closing price. Assumed debt brings the total value of the deal to $5.5 billion, according to a release from Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the private equity group leading the buyout.

Private equity firms are all the rage, and growing in size and number. But what exactly do they do, and why has there been such an increase in their numbers? Fortune's Rik Kirkland explains.

Memphis-based ServiceMaster owns a number of home and commercial services firms through 5,500 company-owned and franchised locations. Its brands include TruGreen, TruGreen LandCare, Terminix, American Home Shield, InStar Services Group, ServiceMaster Clean, Merry Maids, Furniture Medic and AmeriSpec.

ServiceMaster Chairman and CEO J. Patrick Spainhour will continue as CEO, although he will give up the chairman position to George Tamke, an operating partner with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

Private equity interest in ServiceMaster was first reported in early March. Its main publicly traded competitors are Rollins (Charts), which owns the Orkin pest control business, and ABM Industries (Charts), which provides cleaning, engineering, and maintenance to office buildings.