The roll-up craze of the '90s has no success stories.
Encompass' problems parallel those of all the other contracting giants that sprang from last decade's roll-up craze. ARS was the first to get organized in 1996 and the first to blow up. It got purchased by ServiceMaster several years ago for around $25 million when it was doing more than $500 million in annual revenues. Service Experts was the shining star of roll-ups whose IPO price tripled at one point, then dropped like a rock. The company is now owned by Lennox.