When a US company like IHS, one of the biggest and best data analytics and consulting firms in the oil and gas (among other) spaces merges itself with a foreign company–in this case a UK company–to avoid paying higher taxes in the US, you know something is wrong. Yesterday IHS announced they will merge with the UK-based Markit, another data analytics firm. We love the Brits and we’re sure Markit is a fine company–but it distresses us to see companies moving offshore because of Obama’s tax policies. But there you have it–that’s just what has happened. It’s called an “inversion deal”–where a U.S. company combines with a foreign company and moves operations overseas to avoid higher tax liabilities in the U.S. The $13 billion deal involves no cash–only swapping ownership in each other’s stock. The combined company will have revenues of $3.3 billion…
