United Rentals Announces Acquisition of Portland U-Rent-It

United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI) today announced that it has acquired Portland U-Rent-It, Inc., a privately held industrial oriented rental company, with sales of approximately $11 million, based in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Michael Kneeland, chief executive officer of United Rentals, said, "The acquisition of U-RENT-IT is consistent with our strategic focus on the industrial marketplace. We are actively pursuing growth in industrial rentals, where our depth of resources and branch footprint can give us a competitive advantage. Moreover, industrial rentals are subject to different cyclical pressures than the construction market, where we are seeing demand continue to soften as spending is curtailed."

Founded in 1977, U-Rent-It has benefited from rapid growth in the past year stemming from increased demand from energy-related customers, such as refineries in the Gulf region.

About United Rentals

United Rentals, Inc. is the largest equipment rental company in the world, with an integrated network of over 665 rental locations in 48 states, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. The company’s approximately 10,500 employees serve construction and industrial customers, utilities, municipalities, homeowners and others. The company offers for rent over 2,900 classes of rental equipment with a total original cost of $4.3 billion. United Rentals is a member of the Standard & Poor’s MidCap 400 Index and the Russell 2000 Index® and is headquartered in Greenwich, Conn. Additional information about United Rentals is available at www.unitedrentals.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements can generally be identified by words such as "believes,” "expects,” "plans,” "intends,” "projects,” "forecasts,” "may,” "will,” or "should,” or by discussions of vision, strategy or outlook. Our businesses and operations are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and, consequently, actual results may differ materially from those projected by any forward-looking statements. For a description of possible uncertainties, please refer to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, as well as to our subsequent filings with the SEC. Our forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date hereof, and we make no commitment to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements in order to reflect new information or subsequent events, circumstances or changes in expectations.