According to a news release, American Water Works Company, Inc. and Essential Utilities, Inc. jointly announced that the two companies are looking to merge.

Essential Utilities, Inc. operates as the Aqua and Peoples brands, which include Aqua Ohio. Aqua Ohio serves over 500,000 people across the state, including here in the Valley.

The announcement indicates that each company's Board of Directors unanimously approved a definitive agreement to combine the two companies into an all-stock, tax-free merger.

The merger would turn the two companies into a regulated U.S. water and wastewater public utility, with an estimated combined value of approximately $40 billion and a combined enterprise value of approximately $63 billion.

Those values are based on closing stock prices as of October 24,

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