If you wish to challenge the offer to buy USA Truck, contact bgm@brucemurphy.biz

Liberate Technologies Inc., which makes software for television set-top boxes, offered to buy USA Truck Inc. for $240.4 million in cash and said the company should be taken private.

Liberate is offering $21 a share, or 22 percent more than USA Truck's closing price today, San Mateo, California-based Liberate said in a statement sent by PR Newswire. USA Truck, a Van Buren, Arkansas-based trucking company, should be taken private because of costs associated with compliance with regulators, Liberate President Philip Vachon said in a letter to USA Truck President Jerry Orler. Liberate Chief Financial Officer Greg Wood didn't immediately return a telephone message to his office after business hours.

USA Truck's shares rose 20 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $17.15 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading today. The stock has dropped 41 percent this year. Liberate's shares were unchanged at 10 cents on Sept. 21, the most recent day shares traded.