a larger presence in the U.S. regional banking arena than their Canadian peers", however Scotiabank CEO Rick Waugh declined after they could not properly value National's mortgage assets. On October 24, 2008, PNC announced that it had finalized a purchase agreement for National City. The acquisition was a stock purchase transaction to be completed before the end of 2008. National City would be merged into PNC, and the National City brand would be dissolved. The deal was approved by shareholders of both banks on December 23, 2008, and the acquisition was completed on December 31. The deal made PNC the largest bank in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky, as well as the second largest bank in Maryland and Indiana. It greatly expanded PNC's presence in the Midwest, as well as entering PNC into the Florida market. Pittsburgh, Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati were the only three markets before the acquisition in which both banks had a major presence. In the case of Pittsburgh, the two banks had significant overlap, to the point that it would pose antitrust issues in Western Pennsylvania, since both banks had the top two market shares in that region. As a result, the United States Department of Justice required PNC to sell off 50 National City branches in the Pittsburgh area and 11 more branches in and around Erie to competitors. On April 7, 2009, PNC reached a deal with Buffalo-based First Niagara Bank to sell 57 of the branches; First Niagara officially took over those branches on September 8, after the signs were changed over from National City during that year's Labor Day Weekend. The branches not purchased by First Niagara were the four in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, that PNC was still required to divest: one branch in Titusville was sold to The Farmer's National Bank of Emlenton, with the other three (one in Conneaut Lake, and the other two in Meadville, including the branch inside Wal-Mart) were sold to Marquette Savings Bank. Although employees at the branches being sold off were retained, there were still heavy layoffs at National City's headquarters in Cleveland. PNC originally stated that 5,800 employees would be laid off corporate-wide across the new organization. In actuality, over 15,000 employees were laid off, all of them from the previous National City, with PNC losing customer and deposit market share in the Cleveland area as a result. National City Bank had been the largest