Bucyrus-Erie was an American surface and underground mining equipment company that built crawler cranes, truck-mounted cranes, and draglines.  Later Bucyrus-Erie focused more on heavy duty mining equipment and was Renamed Bucyrus International, Inc. in 1997, it was purchased by Caterpillar Inc. in a US$7.6 billion ($8.6 billion including net debt) transaction that closed on July 8, 2011. At the time of its acquisition, the Bucyrus product line included a range of material removal and material handling products used in both surface and underground mining. The Intellectual Property Rights for Bucyrus Erie cranes was acquired by Sparrows Group which has crane manufacturing operations based in Houston, Texas.