A company from out of state bought an existing Pennsylvania company. They are requiring that all employees submit their bank information for payroll direct deposit into their individual personal accounts. Is this legal? The prior company gave them an option of receiving a check from the company.

Is it legal, yes. As along as they want to pay a payroll company to deposit the funds into your bank account you ARE getting paid. A lot of companies are doing this these days to prevent "lost" checks or checks that were intercepted by wrong parties in the mail. Most states have now opted to have their unemployment benefits direct deposited or the money put onto a credit/debit card they issue. Cuts out a lot of fraud.

Yes, it is very very common, even state and local governments are doing it.