Linc Group LLC of Irvine has closed a chapter in a history that’s been “stranger than fiction,” in the words of Chief Executive Tracy Price.
Earlier this year, the company officially moved its headquarters from Houston to Irvine. In doing so, Linc severed its last tie to Enron Corp.
“It made sense to relocate the headquarters and not have to deal with the overhang of the previous Enron debacle,” Price said. “We didn’t need to have it hanging around with us everywhere we went.”
Price ended up as part of Enron after selling Irvine’s FieldCentrix,Linc Group’s predecessor,to the company in 2001. A decade earlier, Price drew up plans for FieldCentrix’s software and computer systems for field-service technicians on a napkin.
Enron started unraveling soon after the acquisition. Price spent two years extracting the business from Enron.
He found a white knight in GI Partners of Menlo Park, which led a buyout of the business in 2003. (In another twist to a complicated tale, FieldCentrix ended up being bought in 2005 by Horsham, Pa.-based Astea International Inc.)
Linc Group, a mix of building maintenance service companies, is one of the few businesses that emerged from Enron untarnished and still kicking.
The protracted fight to break from the fallen energy giant has aged him, Price joked.
“I feel 150 in Enron years,” he said. “I’m easily older than Methuselah.”
The 49-year-old Price is known for his energy and rapid-fire conversation.
Price helped grow Linc from about $140 million in yearly revenue after the buyout to an expected $475 million this year.
Linc counts about 3,000 workers at operations in 45 states and seven countries.
The company already had an Irvine office. The new on-the-books headquarters is set to house all of the company’s merger and acquisition activity and its new lighting and electrical business, Price said.
Linc has struck deals to buy three businesses so far this year.
