URS Buys Washington Group $2.6 Billion

[Road Guy]

Go ahead and start calling URS Halliburton I suppose......

URS Acquires Washington Group for $2.6 Billion

URS Corporation and Washington Group International, Inc. today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Washington Group by URS in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $2.6 billion.

The companies' combined 2006 revenues would have been $7.6 billion, the fourth highest among U.S. publicly-traded engineering and construction companies. Based on previously issued guidance, the companies would have combined 2007 revenues of approximately $8.6 billion. In addition, the companies would have had total backlog exceeding $11 billion, as of March 31, 2007. The combined company would have projects in over 50 countries and more than 54,000 employees.

Under the terms of the agreement, which has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, Washington Group stockholders will receive $43.80 in cash and 0.772 shares of URS common stock for each Washington Group share.

The combined company will be called URS Corporation.

 

[chaosiscash]

There are A LOT of WGI folks at the site I'm at right now. Talk about milking the government for all they are worth. Don't get me wrong, we all do that around here, but it seems like the WGI guys are more shameless about it. Maybe that is just this particular group though, they are all former WSMS guys that got bought by WGI a while back.

 

[Hockeyfan960]

I used to work for URS....what a bunch of losers....well, upper management anyways....

One year they told us that there would be no bonus because we had a "bad" year and did not make our projected budget.

The budget was $9 million in "profit"...we "only" made $8.5 million in "profit" so we could not have any bonuses. While the office manager got a bonus of 50% of his salary ($250K per year) because we mahe more that 95% of our budget....

so in a compnay meeting I asked how does making $8.5 million in profit equate to a "bad" year...the room went silent...

I have the biggest problem with a consulting company being publicly traded. Publicly traded companies work for the stock holders....Consulting engineers work for the client....who gets screwed when you try to make numbers for the stock holders by billing hours to a client...???

It was just a bad place to work.....in order to make numbers they started taking away holidays...then the 401k match....it was just not a place for a true engineer.

my 2 cents....

 

[FusionWhite]

One guy from my company left here to go work for URS. They had a position open for an air quality engineer (my background) who would be doing consulting in a chemical plant (my degree field) and I considered sending in my resume to them. I never pursued it but after reading this stuff maybe Ill wait a little while.

 

[Road Guy]

I have worked for two of the "top 5" engineering firms, similar in size to URS, its not as bad as it sounds, but it does greatly depend on your office manager and his/her staff. The one good thing about the Mega firms is you get to work on some good size projects that you might not get to work on at a medium or smaller size firm.

The bonus thing was always an issue, because this is how the game is played, the more people we can keep out of the bonus pool the more the upper crust get to take home (there is never NO bonus, someone is getting one you can bet)

Billability, theres a word that this new mega firm will be hearing a lot in the coming years :reading:

 

[Dleg]

There are A LOT of WGI folks at the site I'm at right now. Talk about milking the government for all they are worth. Don't get me wrong, we all do that around here, but it seems like the WGI guys are more shameless about it.

Then they should be in good company with URS.

 

[jfusilloPE]

I did a five year with URS before moving to Florida. While I can't speak for the entire company, the office (profit center) that I was in did very well by everyone. Of course there was always the big push for OT towards the end of the FY, but the office manager always did a little something for the employees who participated.

The best thing that I noted while I was there was when 9/11 happened, there was not a big push to lay people off even though municipality money tightened up. They did take away the company match for a short time in the 401(k), but it did come back, and they also took away the "floating holiday" that we had.

Billability was a big key word, and management did their best to keep an eye on everyone, but that was good because most employees are/were stock owners, so it kept everyone in line.

I watched URS absorb a CM firm (Krietzberg & O'Brien) and also the merger with EG&G. Those acquisitions did definitely increase the revenue stream, and they also helped out with securing additional work.

I do work for a national firm (owned by partners as opposed to shareholders), and I do like it much better.

Just my 2-cents