Hilton Hotels Corp. stockholders today overwhelmingly approved the merger agreement with The Blackstone Group, which will take the hotel company private by the end of next month.
More than 98 percent of votes were in favor of the merger, according to Hilton. With the merger approved by stockholders, the only remaining approval needed is a receipt of clearance from the European Commission, for which the companies filed a notification last week. Hilton expects the deal will be complete by the end of October.
Hilton earlier this summer announced the $26 billion offer from Blackstone, which already owned more than 100,000 hotel rooms in the United States and Europe following a string of acquisitions in recent years
(BTN, July 9). The deal for Hilton's 2,800 properties is the largest in hotel industry history.