I posted this same exact thing! lol

I heard about this last thursday though!.

Anyway here's AECOM's resume of architecture acquisitions to date:

DMJM
HSMM
Spillis Candella
Holmes and Narver
EDAW
Cansult Maunsel
Earth Tech

from a principal in the MPLS mothership of EB:

[i[AECOM wanted a Midwest presence and hospital expertise.
Deal was signed last Wed.[/i]

Another recent purchase is ERA, the economics folks

That's exactly right. AECOM's Architectural practice is not very strong in the healthcare/medical sector and had been shopping around for a while. Additionally, Ellerbe also does sports venues and is VERY reputable in higher ed work. And also it was because EB doesn't do multi-family residential -- something AECOM is basically allergic to.

That company is a BEAST.

I'm so glad I'm tiny.

LB, are you suggesting that you would hold out on a generous buyout option from AECOM...?

wait, when was elerbe becket 'inependent' - back in the 60s?

The article notes that Ellerbe was employee owned. I'm guessing all the ESOP members are getting a healthy premium on their current stock value & get to join a Fortune 500 that pretty much garuntees better pay and benefits in the future.

Being part of a broad multi-national is nice in many respects. Profits from other divisions can smooth over the rough times, which tend to happen in Architecture. Back in the 80's CRS diversified out of traditional practice (and went public in an IPO) and ended up making way more money outside of Architecture. Diversification can come in different forms than just an architectural client list.

I kind of have a feeling that someday the "private" Architecture firm as we know it today will go the way of the Dodo. Sure, there will always be small outfits doing residential and small commerical, but for everything else....

Everyone I know that works in a large 100+ office says they are currently looking at aquisitions to grow their client base. What small firms haven't folded in this economy will eventually get gobbled up. Organic business growth just isn't happening right now. New clients?!? Ha ha ha. Existing clients? Billings are down with the economy. Want to grow the firm...or just keep things even, aquire another's client base. Get big enough and the Fortune 500's start noticing and someday you're bought out just like Ellerbe.

loremipsum, they'd be paying for my cheerful demeanor and not much else, but if it meant I could finance my husband's art career forever, sure!

aqua, I agree with you that medium-sized private architecture firms are going to disappear, along with private engineering firms, pharmacies, record stores, medical practices, restaurants...but there will always be a tiny niche for the really little companies in all those fields. Those practitioners will have to be excellent, not just good enough.

"Being part of a broad multi-national is nice in many respects. Profits from other divisions can smooth over the rough times, which tend to happen in Architecture"

Aqua, you must never have been in a quarterly review at a big corporate firm: the shareholders may benefit from diversification, but managers not making their numbers quickly find themselves unemployed.

I agree with your general diagnosis, though, and because of the resulting pressure to wring efficiencies out of that M+A investment, i don't think it is necessarily good for the cause of architecture.

spruce - I have spent some time working for big "public" companies but it was years ago. That said, I do remember a joke about how our bonuses were paid out of international division profits. How true that was I don't know, but believe it or not, I never saw any layoffs in my short time in the corporate world. Then again it was the go-go 90's.

I certinaly don't think this is good for the quality of the workplace. Smaller firms are more "fun" places to work by and large. Quality of architecture, I'm not so sure. I don't think good design is dependant on the type of firm it comes from. Who knows if selling out corporate is a good thing. All I know is that I sure would love some job security and solid advancement opportunities right about now. Not sure becoming a cog in the corporate machine is the right way, but it's something. Right now internal advancement is a no-go with an already oversupply of management with reduced work load. Firm hopping is mostly a thing of the past too. I know I'm way off topic now but as someone in my mid-30's looking to move up but instead is totally sidelined by the economy, corporate multi-national is a path I wouldn't turn down.

Latest deal! "Mergers and Aquisitions" + "Mergers and Acquisitions"

(hey, at least they aren't carbon copies; one being distinguishable by the misspelling of the other. We call this product differentiation.)

also, mergers and acquisition may be conducted on the basis of very different strategies:

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/2123.html

I see the aforementioned Archinect thread example as a classic "Over-capacity" model M&A. Simply too much archinect-space dedicated to the M&A, pre-merger.

We (a 95 person, 60 year old, 3 office firm in Northern and Central California) merged with IBI group, the worlds 9th largest Architecture, Urban Planning firm last month. Exciting times ahead, I do believe.

I sold my small firm to a larger firm this past spring. Still too early to see how it is going to turn out...

Over the last couple years Perkins+Will had acquired MB&T Architecture, Geunther 5, and Ai.

BTW, everyone seems very excited and pleased about the Ellerbe Becket thing.

Perkins + Will also acquired SMWM. According to Architect's Newspaper this week about 10 of the acquired staff were recently laid off. Interesting times indeed.

I am reminded of advice given by one of my undergrad teachers: never work for a firm with "group" in its name.

AECOM has also bought out engineering firms as well. A couple years ago they bought out STS Consultants, which was a pretty substantial firm of over 500 engineers in itself.

Stantec is purchasing Philadelphia-based Granary Associates, a 100-employee firm.