Houston-based oilfield services giant Baker Hughes could be dropped from the GE family it joined only in July as the parent company is considering selling off its majority stake.
The merger of Baker Hughes with GE’s oil and gas division was finalized only four months ago but now GE is going through its worst slump in a decade, slashing its dividend and losing stock value.
Rumours of a split were stoked by comments from GE’s CEO John Flannery’s that the company was considering its “exit options” for the 62.5% Baker Hughes stake.
The Baker Hughes and GE merger was achieved only after a similar attempted merger between Baker Hughes and Halliburton had failed because of antitrust concerns.
