March 1, 2011

Akerman Senterfitt represented Swisher Hygiene, Inc., a major provider of warewash, laundry, cleaning chemical and facility service solutions for the foodservice, healthcare, retail and industrial sectors, in its acquisition of Choice Environmental Services, Inc., a residential and commercial solid waste services company, by way of a statutory merger involving a wholly-owned subsidiary of Swisher Hygiene. Swisher Hygiene issued 9,200,000 shares of its common stock to the former shareholders of Choice Environmental at the agreed value of $50.1 million. Swisher also assumed $41.5 million in debt.

Swisher Hygiene contemporaneously concluded a private placement of subscription receipts, pursuant to which Swisher Hygiene issued 12,262,500 subscription receipts at a price of $4.75 (Canadian) for aggregate gross proceeds of $58,246,875 (Canadian).  The subscription receipts entitle the holder to receive a share of Swisher Hygiene common stock in exchange for each subscription receipt. The proceeds of this offering will be used to pay-off the assumed Choice Environmental debt and for working capital.

The Akerman team included Edward Ristaino (merger), Rick Fucci (merger), Sean Coyle (merger), Dan Jacobson (merger), Mark Druckman (business diligence), Jed Freeland (business diligence), Brenda Goerks (business diligence), Jim Goldsmith (business diligence), Robert Cutler (business diligence), Peter Chiabotti (business diligence), Gary Guzzi (business diligence), Michael Francis (private placement/securities), Christina Russo (private placement/securities), and Larry Ross (private placement/securities).

Akerman is recognized by U.S. News - Best Lawyers as a national tier one law firm for Private Equity, and for Corporate, M&A, and Securities/Capital Markets law in the U.S. In addition, Akerman's Corporate practice is recognized by The Legal 500 within the National Firms - Middle Market category and is ranked #1 by Chambers USA for Corporate/M&A in Florida. Akerman advises many public and emerging companies, and private equity and investment funds on M&A, public offerings, private equity and venture capital investments, and other transactional matters.

About Akerman Senterfitt
Akerman is ranked among the top 100 law firms in the United States by The National Law Journal NLJ 250 (2010) in number of lawyers and is the leading Florida firm. With 500 lawyers and government affairs professionals, Akerman serves clients throughout the United States and overseas from Florida, New York, Washington, D.C., California, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada and Texas. More information can be found at www.akerman.com or www.twitter.com/akerman_law.