Private equity firm KKR agreed to acquire The Brickman Group for $1.6 billion from Leonard Green & Partners and other shareholders. Brickman, based in Gaithersburg, Md., ranked No. 2 on the 2013 LM150 with $900 million in 2012 annual revenue. KKR is based in New York and has $90 billion in assets under management, including brands such as Dollar General, GoDaddy.com, Toys R Us and Sunrise Senior Living.

“We are very pleased to partner with KKR, a leading investment firm with extensive experience in service businesses and an outstanding track record,” Brickman CEO Andrew Kerin said. “With our partner, we are well positioned to accelerate our growth, further enhance the quality of services we provide to our clients and extend our industry leadership.”

Expansion is likely to come from organic growth and through acquisition, Brickman spokeswoman LaNella Hooper-Williams told Landscape Management. She said details of the transaction are still being ironed out before its anticipated close by the end of the year, but the core leadership team and their roles and responsibilities “definitely remain.”

Founded in Chicago in 1939, Brickman has nearly 10,000 employees nationwide and serves a diversified base of more than 10,000 clients. Leonard Green acquired Brickman in an $847 million recapitalization in 2006.

“Brickman is a leader in its industry, with an outstanding management team, a distinguished culture, talented and committed employees and a track record of delivering high-quality services to its clients,” Simon Brown, member of KKR, said. “We are excited to invest in the company and look forward to working closely with the Brickman leadership team to continue to build on the company’s market-leading position and grow the business over time.”