Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc. have ended their plan to merge (OGJ Online, Apr. 6, 2016).
Halliburton Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dave Lesar cited “challenges in obtaining remaining regulatory approvals and general industry conditions that severely damaged deal economics.”
Baker Hughes Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Martin Craighead noted the complexity of the deal and said, “A solution could not be found to satisfy the antitrust concerns of regulators, both in the United States and abroad.”
The US Justice Department last month filed a lawsuit opposing the merger, the value of which was estimated at $34 billion when announced in November 2014. Earlier, the European Commission expressed concerns about antitrust aspects of the deal.
Halliburton will pay Baker Hughes a termination fee of $3.5 billion.