FTC Receives Petition for Approval of Proposed Divestiture from SCI and Alderwoods Group

Petition for approval of proposed divestiture: The Commission has received a petition from Service Corporation International (SCI) and Alderwoods Group, Inc. seeking approval of a proposed divestiture related to SCI’s recent acquisition of Alderwoods. In the FTC’s consent agreement and order allowing the transaction to proceed with conditions, SCI and Alderwoods were required to divest a range of funeral home and cemetery services companies. Through this petition, a public version of which can be found on the Commission’s Web site as a link to this press release, the companies have requested approval to divest: 1) Conejo Mountain Funeral Home, located at 2052 Howard Road, Camarillo, California (Southern Ventura County); and 2) Conjeo Mountain Memorial Park, located at the same address, to two wholly owned subsidiaries of Carriage Services, Inc.: Carriage Cemetery Services, Inc. (CCSI) and Cochrane’s Chapel of Roses, Inc. Under an agreement with SCI, CCSI will buy the cemetery assets and Cochrane’s will buy the funeral home assets.

The FTC is seeking public comments on the proposed divestitures for 30 days, until January 18, 2007, after which it will decide whether to approve it. Comments should be sent to: FTC, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20580. (FTC File No. 061-0156, Docket No. C-4174; the staff contact is Elizabeth A. Piotrowski, Bureau of Competition, 202-326-2623, see press release dated November 22, 2006.)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.