Olympic Steel, Inc. (ZEUS)

Olympic Steel, Inc. was a metals service center and processor headquartered in Bedford Heights, Ohio, near Cleveland. The business traces its history to 1954, and it was built over several decades by the Siegal family, which led the company as it grew from a regional flat-rolled steel distributor into a national supplier of processed metals.

The company bought carbon, coated and stainless steel and aluminum products from mills and sold them, often after processing, to manufacturers and other industrial customers. Its processing capabilities included cutting to length, slitting, shearing, blanking, roll forming, plate burning, laser cutting, tempering and surface improvement. It also sold tubular and pipe products and provided fabrication and machining.

Olympic Steel reported results in three segments: carbon flat products, specialty metals flat products, and tubular and pipe products. Its customers operated in industries such as transportation, construction, mining, agriculture, appliances, food service and military applications. The company operated a network of facilities across the United States and maintained smaller operations in other markets.

Olympic Steel went public in the 1990s and its common stock traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol ZEUS. Over the years it grew through acquisitions of processors and distributors, including specialty metals and tubular businesses, and it reported cyclical results that followed steel prices and industrial demand. It paid a regular dividend to shareholders.

The circumstances of the delisting were a stock-for-stock merger with Ryerson Holding Corporation, a Chicago-based metals service center company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RYI. The merger agreement provided for each Olympic Steel share to convert into 1.7105 shares of Ryerson common stock. The combination joined two of the larger North American metals service center businesses.

Shareholders of both companies approved the merger and the related issuance of Ryerson shares at special meetings. The merger was expected to close on February 13, 2026, and Olympic Steel stock stopped trading on Nasdaq on that date. After closing, Olympic Steel was no longer listed on Nasdaq, and former shareholders held Ryerson shares in the combined company.

The deal brought together two businesses with overlapping customers and complementary processing footprints, and it was presented as a way to improve scale and service across North America. Olympic Steel's long tenure as a family-influenced public company thus ended with the combination. Former Olympic Steel holders can follow the combined business through the filings and reports of Ryerson. The transaction was structured as a merger in which Olympic Steel became part of Ryerson, so no cash price per share was set at signing.