September’s most popular stories

Last month went by in a breeze, but I hope everyone at least remembered the 21st night of September. Here’s a roundup of our top-five stories of the month:

United Air Temp to lay off nearly a third of its workforce. “Virginia-based residential HVAC, plumbing, and electrical company United Air Temp will conduct a ‘mass layoff’ of 96 employees, or nearly a third of its workforce, in November, according to a new state filing.” (Full story)

Flint Group launches sale process. “While the sale process is in the early stages, it adds to a run of private equity-backed platform activity this year, including Blackstone’s $2.5 billion acquisition of Champions Group, the reported sale process of USA Hometown Experts, and Apollo’s minority investment in Apex Service Partners, which valued the company at $10 billion.” (Full story)

Advertisers could recoup a chunk of their Google ad spend, lawyers say. “Several law firms around the country are recruiting clients who bought Google search or display ads between August 2016 and the present, saying they may be eligible for payouts from the tech giant.” (Full story)

GFCI rule for outdoor HVAC equipment to hit over 20 states. “A definitive number of states in which the GFCI requirement will take effect on [September 1] couldn’t be ascertained, as state and local code regulations vary. A HARDI representative told Homepros that 24 states will be impacted, while an AHRI spokesperson placed the figure at 28 in some capacity — since in some states, only certain counties will be impacted.” (Full story)

HVAC coalition presses feds for tariff relief, USMCA support. “A coalition of HVAC associations [have] submitted a letter to the U.S. government on behalf of the industry, calling for tariff relief and urging support for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) amid ongoing trade disputes among the three countries.” (Full story)