OCALA, Fla. -- Marion County's largest private employer has been sold.

Ocala-based E-One makes fire trucks and employs 1,300 people, but it's been losing money for years. Wednesday night, the company announced E-One is being sold to a private equity firm called American Industrial Partners, or AIP.

E-One's parent company, Federal Signal, disowned the company in May saying E-One was no longer part of its operations. So E-One will become a privately-held company backed by AIP.

AIP, based in New York City, specializes in buying companies it thinks it can fix. It also owns nine other companies, including Collins Industries, which manufactures ambulances, school buses, and heavy-duty trucks.