Nature of Business and Basis of Presentation

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Nature of Business and Basis of Presentation [Abstract]

NATURE OF BUSINESS AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

1. NATURE OF BUSINESS AND BASIS OF PRESENTATION

Michael Baker Corporation (the “Company”) was founded in 1940 and organized as a Pennsylvania corporation in 1946. Currently, through its operating subsidiaries, the Company provides engineering expertise for public and private sector clients worldwide. The Company’s Transportation and Federal business segments provide a variety of services to the Company’s markets. The Transportation segment provides services for Surface Transportation, Aviation and Rail & Transit markets and the Federal segment provides services for Defense, Environmental, Architecture, Geospatial Information Technology, Homeland Security, Municipal & Civil, Oil & Gas, Telecom & Utilities and Water markets. Among the services the Company provides to clients in these markets are program management, design-build (for which the Company provides only the design portion of services), construction management, consulting, planning, surveying, mapping, geographic information systems, architectural and interior design, construction inspection, constructability reviews, site assessment and restoration, strategic regulatory analysis and regulatory compliance.

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and notes have been prepared by the Company in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial reporting and with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and related notes that would normally be required by GAAP for audited financial statements. These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed for the year ended December 31, 2011 (the “Form 10-K”).

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements include all adjustments (of a normal and recurring nature) that management considers necessary for a fair statement of financial information for the interim periods. Interim results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the remainder of the year ending December 31, 2012.

On January 1, 2012, the Company changed from a traditional month-end calendar close cycle to a 4-4-5 calendar close methodology. Under this new methodology, each quarter is comprised of 13 weeks, which includes two 4-week months and one 5-week month. The 4-4-5 close methodology changed the accounting periods to month-end dates that would be different than the traditional last day of the standard month end, with the exception of adjusting to January 1^st and December 31 ^st to maintain the traditional calendar year. This change in methodology facilitates accelerating the Company’s monthly close, is common in the Company’s industry and did not have a material impact on the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

On September 30, 2009, the Company divested substantially all of its subsidiaries that pertained to its former Energy segment (the “Energy Sale”). Additionally, the Company sold its interest in B.E.S. Energy Resources Company, Ltd. (“B.E.S.”), an Energy company, on December 18, 2009 to J.S. Technical Services Co., LTD., which is owned by the Company’s former minority partner in B.E.S. As a result of these dispositions, the results of the Company’s former Energy segment (“Baker Energy”) have been classified as discontinued operations for all periods presented in the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income and unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. All amounts reflected as noncontrolling interests are related exclusively to the Company’s continuing operations.