Still, many people have a tendency to confuse the two.
“We run into that all the time,” said Larry Simkins, president of Washington Corp. - which, just to be clear, is the Missoula-based business entity that handles central and administrative functions for the Washington Cos.
The Washington Cos., on the other hand, are a collection of private businesses that operate independently of one another, and include Montana Rail Link, Envirocon and the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation in its list of Missoula-based entities.
“It's a totally separate entity,” Simkins said Tuesday. “They've always been separate entities.”
Dennis Washington maintains a controlling ownership in the Washington Cos. and is chairman of the Washington Group. Aside from his involvement, the two organizations have no connection, Simkins said.
That's why Monday's news that Washington Group will be acquired by construction and engineering giant URS Corp. later this year isn't causing much excitement in Missoula, said Washington Foundation executive director Mike Halligan.
“It doesn't affect us at all,” he said.
Once the $2.6 billion acquisition is approved by shareholders, Washington Group will assume the URS name and put an end to the widespread confusion over its relationship with Washington Cos. once and for all.
Dennis Washington, who maintains a primary residence in Missoula, started his first construction company in the 1960s. The business soon branched into mining and transportation, and eventually real estate.
He created Washington Group in the mid-1990s after one of his companies, Washington Construction, acquired Boise-based Morrison Knudsen Corp., an engineering and construction company that counted projects across the globe.
The new enterprise was named Washington Group International. It has continued to acquire new departments and diversify its services, which now run the gamut from national defense to environmental remediation.
The acquisition by URS, which is based in San Francisco and has nearly 30,000 employees in 20 countries, will allow the companies to offer an even wider variety of services, according to Laurie Spiegelberg, Washington Group's vice president of corporate communications.
Although both companies offer engineering services, there is very little overlap, Spiegelberg said via telephone from Idaho. She explained that URS has focused on front-end engineering services, while Washington Group has made a name for itself by offering full-spectrum engineering capabilities.
Once the acquisition is approved, Washington Group's shareholders will receive $43.80 in cash and 0.772 shares of URS stock per share, according to the company's news release.
Washington Group took in almost $81 million during the 2006 fiscal year. In comparison, the Washington Cos. generate collective revenues approaching $1 billion.
The Washington Cos. consist of more than a dozen individual companies doing business in a variety of industries, from rail transportation and aviation technology to construction and mining.
A handful of these are based in Missoula, Simkins said.
Montana Rail Link, for one, runs 900 miles of track in Montana, Idaho and Washington, and employs roughly 1,000 people.
Envirocon maintains its corporate headquarters in Missoula, although it counts offices from California to Pennsylvania. The environmental remediation company is currently working on the Milltown Reservoir cleanup, among other projects.
And then there is the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, which handles charitable activities for the Washington Cos. and is also based in Missoula.
Other Washington Cos. entities include Butte-based Montana Resources, which operates an open-pit copper and molybdenum mine, and Modern Machinery Co. Inc., which sells and rents heavy equipment and keeps a full-service branch in Missoula.
Reporter Tyler Christensen can be reached at 523-5215 or tyler.christensen@lee.net.
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