The interior of Jacobs' headquarters in Dallas.

Dallas-based engineering giant Jacobs is buying a majority stake in an innovation consulting firm that places a $2.4 billion enterprise value on the company.

Jacobs $995 million equity investment in PA Consulting amounts to a 65% stake. The remaining 35% will be held by PA employees, following the exit of existing majority stakeholder Carlyle Group.

Jacobs also will assume $845 million of PAs debt and provide up to a $130 million credit line to fund growth.

Over the last several years we have transformed Jacobs to a leading technology-enabled solutions provider, said Jacobs chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou in a statement. This strategic partnership is an intentional move in accelerating our strategy.

PA has seen its revenue grow from $459 million in 2016 to an estimated $715 million this year. The companys 3,200 employees work in the United Kingdom, U.S., Europe and the Nordics. It has operated an innovation center in Cambridge, England, for 50 years.

Founded in 1943, PAs recent work includes the Virgin Hyperloop, advances in gene therapy manufacturing with Ori Biotech, an inhaler used in tuberculosis research and a failure-predicting tool for public utilities.

Jacobs said it expects to ramp up PAs growth, particularly in the U.S., by targeting high growth sectors like health and life sciences, public services, consumer and manufacturing, and defense and security.

'We see Jacobs as the ideal partner for PA, leveraging their client relationship networks and global platform to position us for the next phase of growth, said PA Consulting CEO Ken Toombs in a statement.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of Jacobs fiscal 2021 second quarter.

Jacobs is one of the largest public companies in Dallas-Fort Worth, with $13.6 billion in fiscal 2020 revenue and 55,000 employees globally.

Last week, both Jacobs and PA Consulting made smaller acquisitions.

Jacobs acquired Reston, Va.-based cyber and intelligence company The Buffalo Group. PA Consulting bought a Boston-area engineering company, Cooper Perkins, that specializes in electromechanical device design.

Terms of those deals werent disclosed.

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Dallas-based Jacobs investment puts $2.4 billion value on innovation firm - The Dallas Morning News