Jacobs Engineering Group

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. of Pasadena saw its shares record their largest daily gains in a year Friday, fueled by on-air speculation from cable business news channel CNBC that the firm could be taken over by private equity investors. Shares in the company closed at $47.61, up $3.33, or 7.5%. Amid heavy trading of nearly 10 million shares -- up nearly fivefold from a day earlier -- the stock hit a high of $48.28 in intraday trading, the highest per-share price since April 2, 2009.

The culinary combat involving the selection of new dining spots inside Los Angeles International Airport has taken another turn: a complaint to the city attorney alleging that two more companies vying for contracts have conflicts of interest. The charges leveled by Host International Inc. prompted the Board of Referred Powers, which features five of the Los Angeles City Council's 15 members, to postpone a hearing set for Thursday to review the bidding process and the finalists selected by airport officials for retail, food and beverage contracts.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. of Pasadena saw its shares record their largest daily gains in a year Friday, fueled by on-air speculation from cable business news channel CNBC that the firm could be taken over by private equity investors. Shares in the company closed at $47.61, up $3.33, or 7.5%. Amid heavy trading of nearly 10 million shares -- up nearly fivefold from a day earlier -- the stock hit a high of $48.28 in intraday trading, the highest per-share price since April 2, 2009.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. won a contract worth as much as $480 million to provide technical support to the Air Force. The work includes providing engineering, test and evaluation services at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts as well as other locations. The contract lasts three years, Pasadena-based Jacobs said.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. will pay $35 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed the Pasadena firm improperly billed the U.S. government on contracts involving mostly environmental cleanup, the U.S. attorney said. The suit claimed Jacobs made unallowable charges on cost reimbursement contracts with the military, Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency and NASA. Although it settled, Jacobs denies the allegations.

Jacobs Engineering Wins Big Contract: The Pasadena-based Jacobs Engineering Group announced it has received a $200-million contract to provide engineering, procurement and construction management services to help modernize the Shreveport, La., refinery of Atlas Processing Co. Atlas is a subsidiary of Pennzoil Products Co. Atlas is building facilities to turn low-grade crude oil into gasoline and other refined products, which will greatly increase the refinery's production.

Construction services provider Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. said its fiscal second-quarter profit jumped 48% as surging oil and gas prices spurred contracts to build energy projects. For the quarter that ended March 31, the Pasadena-based company earned $99.3 million, or 80 cents a share, up from $67.2 million, or 55 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 27% to $2.66 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 77 cents a share on sales of $2.63 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.

The federal government has joined a whistle-blower lawsuit against Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. that alleges the Pasadena-based company overcharged the military and other government agencies for environmental cleanup projects during the last several years, the U.S. attorney's office said Monday.

Construction services provider Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. said its fiscal second-quarter profit jumped 48% as surging oil and gas prices spurred contracts to build energy projects. For the quarter that ended March 31, the Pasadena-based company earned $99.3 million, or 80 cents a share, up from $67.2 million, or 55 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 27% to $2.66 billion. Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 77 cents a share on sales of $2.63 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. won a contract worth as much as $480 million to provide technical support to the Air Force. The work includes providing engineering, test and evaluation services at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts as well as other locations. The contract lasts three years, Pasadena-based Jacobs said.

The refinery explosion that shook a town southeast of Houston on Wednesday also sent a shock wave through the headquarters of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. in Pasadena. Eleven of the 15 workers who died in the explosion and fire at the BP refinery in Texas City worked for Jacobs, one of the world's largest construction and engineering firms. "It's my worst nightmare," Jacobs Chief Executive Noel Watson said in an interview outside his office Thursday.

Joseph J. Jacobs, chairman and founder of Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., one of the world's largest engineering and construction firms, died Saturday in Pasadena. He was 88. A Brooklyn, N.Y., native, Jacobs moved to California and founded his namesake company in 1947, offering his services as a chemical engineering consultant and manufacturers' representative for large-scale equipment.

Given the hoopla surrounding the contract won by San Francisco-based Bechtel Group for the rebuilding of Iraq, it would be easy to conclude that the best way to make money in the engineering business these days is to follow the bombs. Yet, in fact, others in the industry are reaping profits by following the boom -- that is, the aging baby boom generation and its increasing need for medical treatment.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. will pay $35 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed the Pasadena firm improperly billed the U.S. government on contracts involving mostly environmental cleanup, the U.S. attorney said. The suit claimed Jacobs made unallowable charges on cost reimbursement contracts with the military, Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency and NASA. Although it settled, Jacobs denies the allegations.

A Pasadena engineering and construction firm announced plans to buy four companies from Dravo Corp., an ailing Pennsylvania company that has launched a massive restructuring. Jacobs Engineering Group said it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Gibbs & Hill, a New York-based engineering unit; Dravo Engineering Cos., with main offices in Pittsburgh and Atlanta; Dravo Constructors and Weyher/Livsey Constructors, construction subsidiaries headquartered in Pittsburgh and Atlanta.

The culinary combat involving the selection of new dining spots inside Los Angeles International Airport has taken another turn: a complaint to the city attorney alleging that two more companies vying for contracts have conflicts of interest. The charges leveled by Host International Inc. prompted the Board of Referred Powers, which features five of the Los Angeles City Council's 15 members, to postpone a hearing set for Thursday to review the bidding process and the finalists selected by airport officials for retail, food and beverage contracts.

The federal government has joined a whistle-blower lawsuit against Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. that alleges the Pasadena-based company overcharged the military and other government agencies for environmental cleanup projects during the last several years, the U.S. attorney's office said Monday.

Southern California today is a hotbed of small business. But is it a good place to grow a small business into a big one? "Not as good as it used to be," says the founder of a major local company--who is joined in his verdict by the chief executive who succeeded him. Joseph Jacobs, 81, founded Jacobs Engineering Group 50 years ago in Los Angeles, and the company remains a prominent resident of Pasadena--but only because it made a tough decision three years ago to keep headquarters here.