Going, going, gone.

Decatur-based John H. Harland, best known as a printer of checks, ended its 38 years as a publicly held company on May 1.

That was the last day the company's shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, where it had been a fixture for 23 years.

Harland, acquired in a deal valued at about $1.7 billion, joins dozens of other Georgia-based companies that have departed the public realm — either because they were bought, chose to go private, moved away or failed.

For example, Roper Industries, one of the state's fastest-growing companies, last year moved its headquarters from Duluth to Sarasota, Fla. Had it stayed, Roper would have been Georgia's 16th-largest publicly held company, as measured by market value — after Equifax and before Delta Air Lines.

Georgia's 10th-largest public company, IntercontinentalExchange, has said it will transfer its headquarters to Chicago if it's successful in acquiring CBOT Holdings, parent of the Chicago Board of Trade.

Georgia public companies tracked by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Bloomberg News have shrunk to 138 currently from 254 in 1999.

Several more are expected to disappear from the list because they are being acquired. They include Novelis, Pediatric Services of America, Witness Systems and World Air Holdings.

But at least four companies are waiting in the wings to replace them, if they complete initial public offerings. They include Atlanta-based PNA Group Holding, a distributor of steel products; Atlanta-based CardioMEMS, a medical device maker; Roswell-based CompBenefits, a provider of dental and vision benefits; and Atlanta-based Bway Holding, a maker of metal and plastic containers.

If Bway completes its IPO, it would retake the public stage. A private equity firm took it private four years ago. PNA Group Holding and CompBenefits also are controlled by private equity firms.

All told, there now are 282 publicly held companies in Georgia with a combined market value of more than $530 billion, according to the Capital IQ division of Standard & Poor's. About half of that value is concentrated in three companies: Coca-Cola, Home Depot and United Parcel Service. The top 10 companies account for about 75 percent of the total value.

By sector, the largest number of companies — about a quarter — are in financial services, such as banks, thrifts and insurers.

That's followed closely — about 20 percent — by technology, or technology-related businesses. These include those that provide application software, data processing, communications equipment and other electronic hardware.

Health care and biotech firms account for about 12 percent.

Just over half of Georgia's public companies are unlisted, meaning their shares trade over the counter between individuals connected by telephone and computer networks. Prices are quoted on the Pink Sheets or on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board.