By Mike Fitts
Published July 20, 2010
Columbia-based international engineering firm Wilbur Smith Associates is negotiating a merger with a larger Massachusetts company.
Wilbur Smith is in the “due diligence” phase of talks with CDM of Cambridge, Mass., said Danielle Gadow, director of corporate communications. The two companies have been discussing for the past month the mechanics of a merger, Gadow said, and there is no guarantee that a deal will be completed.
Talks are expected to continue into the fall, Gadow said. Both companies are entirely employee-owned, so they will vote to approve any arrangement reached by corporate management teams. “Our employees have a say in this,” she said.
The shape of the merger, including the site of any new headquarters, is not clear yet, she said. If a merger does happen, Columbia will not see Wilbur Smith’s operation disappear from the community, Gadow said. “I don’t see that Wilbur Smith Associates here in Columbia will go away,” she said.
Wilbur Smith is headquartered at 1300 Gervais St., in the building that bears its name.
The two companies could combine operations at some other sites once a lease comes up, she said. But the two companies have different specialties, Gadow said, so a merger would be more complicated than a straightforward combination.
CDM is best-known for its work with wastewater and environmental remediation. CDM, founded in 1947, has more than 4,500 employees worldwide and was ranked 21st on a list of top design firms compiled by the trade magazine Engineering News-Record. Its 2009 revenue was $720 million.
Wilbur Smith Associates is best-known for its transportation work, Gadow said. It has more than 1,000 employees worldwide and was ranked 164th on the Engineering News-Record design list. Its 2009 revenue was $182.4 million.
In addition to transportation, Wilbur Smith also provides consulting services from civic planning to economic development. Among its recent projects locally was the replacement of the I-26/U.S. 378 interchange in West Columbia, while it also is taking on rural infrastructure in Bangladesh.
The company was founded in 1952 by Wilbur S. Smith, the former South Carolina state traffic engineer.
