Consulting Firm IHS Merges with UK Firm to Avoid High US Taxes

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...

---

To view this content, log into your member account. (Not a member? Join Today!)