News broke on Friday that Parsons Brinckerhoff, which has a contract to be the program manager for the California high speed rail project, has been bought by Balfour Beatty, a British construction company:
A British construction company, Balfour Beatty, said Thursday that it had agreed to buy the New York transportation engineering group Parsons Brinckerhoff for $626 million.
Balfour Beatty said the deal would help it establish a global professional services business with more than 14,000 employees and give it a leading position in public works in the United States as the Obama administration spends billions upgrading the railways, roads and bridges.
Balfour Beatty has extensive rail project experience, including being a co-contractor on the Channel Tunnel and London's Docklands Light Railway. It is unclear that this point how the purchase will affect Parsons Brinckerhoff's operations or practices, if at all.
Let's hope this British purchase of a successful American firm turns out better than it did for Sterling Cooper.
