Engineering giant Thornton Tomasetti merges with smaller firm, seeks to drive industry innovation

Dive Brief:

Two engineering firms based in New York City — including one of the industry's largest engineering/architectural firms, Thornton Tomasetti Inc., and the smaller Weidlinger Associates Inc. — announced they are merging to create a company with combined 2015 revenue estimated around $240 million.
The new firm will employ about 1,200 people across 34 cities. Both companies already have offices in New York, Boston and Washington.
The terms of the merger were undisclosed, but The Wall Street Journal reported it was completed Tuesday via an exchange of stock, and the new firm will operate under the Thornton Tomasetti name. Company representatives said the new, privately held firm will allow the engineers to offer a wider range of services and expand their geographic reach.

Dive Insight:

Thornton Tomasetti and Weidlinger said they want to use the merged company to spark greater innovation within the construction and engineering industries. After merging, they will form a research and development holding company to develop construction innovations.

"The construction industry, compared with other sectors, has been a slow adopter of innovations, partly because of the way projects are often managed with several companies handling various parts of the building process," The Journal noted.

Recent innovations, however, especially with BIM and 3-D printing, have sparked a push for construction managers to use more technology for projects.

There has been a wave of construction and engineering mergers this year, as M&A activity soared 73% between the first and second quarter of 2015, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report. The second quarter saw 64 mergers and acquisitions of more than $50 million.

Thornton Tomasetti is best known for its structural engineering and design work for major skyscrapers, including the 2,075-foot-high Shanghai Tower in China and the planned 3,280-foot-high Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Weidlinger has gained recognition for its work in transportation and protective design. It worked with the U.S. Embassy in Berlin to provide structural-design and blast-engineering services, and designed the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

A spokesman said all of the Weidlinger senior-level managers will transition over to the new company. The current CEO of Weidlinger will serve as co-president of the new firm with Thornton Thomasetti's current president. Two Weidlinger board members will join the current Thornton Thomasetti board.