Downtown-based electricity supplier Strategic Energy LLC is being acquired by Direct Energy, of Toronto, for $300 million in cash.

Direct Energy Chief Operating Officer Lois Hedg-peth said she expected most of Strategic Energy's 270 employees to remain in Pittsburgh.

Strategic Energy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kansas City, Mo.-based Great Plains Energy. Direct Energy is a subsidiary of British energy conglomerate Centrica plc, which already operates in 22 states. Under the terms of the deal, Strategic Energy, which markets electricity to commercial and industrial users in 11 states, will merge with Direct Energy's commercial and industrial business unit, Direct Energy Business.

Direct Energy has made more than 20 acquisitions in the United States alone since 2001, Ms. Hedg-peth said, and they have taught her that the biggest challenge of integrating companies goes far beyond the mechanics of such matters as blending accounting systems.

"Before we acquire a company, we try to look at their values and culture," she said. "We've competed against Strategic Energy in the marketplace and really respect them …. When you start from that position of respect, I think it's easier to integrate the company."

On the face of it, the debt-free transaction sounds so straightforward that the expected June closing should be a certainty, assuming regulators approve.

In the background, however, is a matrix of activity resembling a game of musical chairs. Great Plains announced in February 2007 that it intended to acquire Aquila Inc., an electric and natural gas utility also based in Kansas City. That deal was contingent, in part, on Aquila first selling its natural gas operations to a third company, the Black Hills Corp., of Rapid City, S.D., leaving Great Plains with just the electricity utility.

In its announcement of the Strategic Energy deal, Great Plains included a standard disclosure that listed the acquisition of Aquila, and Aquila's sale of assets to Black Hills, among the "important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially" from expectations. In other words, if those deals do not close -- however unlikely that may be -- the company might not complete this one.

And with good reason -- Strategic Energy has been a cash cow for its parent company, providing an average 58 percent of Great Plains' revenues over the last three years.