DOJ Sues ValueAct Capital for Meddling in Halliburton/BH Merger
So what’s happening with Halliburton’s $34.6 billion buyout of Baker Hughes? At last check the deal was at best a 50/50 proposition as to whether or not it would happen. Europe currently has the deal under a microscope (see Europe Puts Halliburton/BH Merger Under a Microscope). The European Commission launched a “second phase” of their investigation into the deal, which is problematic for Halliburton. The European Commission says they see “serious potential competition concerns” with the deal. Not good. But that was in January. Since then we’d not heard anything about the deal’s progress–until now. Yesterday the U.S. Dept. of Justice sued ValueAct Capital, accusing the company of purchasing $2.6 billion worth of stock in Halliburton and BH with “the intent to influence the companies’ business decisions as the merger unfolded.” The company has been charged with violating the reporting and waiting period requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act…
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It continues to be tough times at Halliburton. Although the company is in the process of buying smaller competitor Baker Hughes, Halliburton themselves are having a hard time keeping their proverbial nose above water. In the third quarter of 2015 the company lost $54 million and laid off another 2,000 employees. Earlier this year Halliburton laid off 10% of its workforce–some 9,000 people (see 
Halliburton and Baker Hughes are having a pre-merger garage sale. In order for Halliburton to buy Baker Hughes, a deal worth $34.6 billion (see 
Very interesting development with Halliburton. As we previously reported, Halliburton is forcing Baker Hughes to the alter in a shotgun wedding/takeover (see 
Halliburton, the second largest oilfield services company in the world and a major presence in northeast drilling, performed a self audit of their 80,000+ employees and found that just over 1,000 (1.4%) of their employees were eligible for overtime but didn’t receive it. Some of those workers are in Pennsylvania Marcellus–39 of them in fact, who are owed a collective $800,000 in back wages. Halliburton turned themselves in to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, admitting the mistake and offering to make it right. The company reached an agreement with the DOL to pay $18,293,557 to 1,016 employees nationwide for uncompensated overtime, one of the biggest such cases “in recent years” according to the DOL…
Whatever happened to the Halliburton merger/buyout (i.e. shotgun wedding) with Baker Hughes? As we told you in July, the two “love birds” have set a December 1st wedding date (see 
It’s tough times in the oil patch. Halliburton, the world’s second largest oilfield services company, posted second quarter financial results yesterday. While the marketers and bean counters do their best to put a happy face on the results, there’s no papering over the fact that Halliburton and other oilfield services companies have been hammered hard by the downturn in oil and natural gas prices and the rapid decline in drilling, as evidenced by lower rig counts. Halliburton’s revenue for 2Q14 (a year ago) was $8.051 billion. Revenue for 2Q15 was $5.919 billion–a drop of 26% year over year. When you add in expenses of all types, the picture becomes even clearer–and bloodier. In 2Q14 Halliburton’s net income was $775 million. In 2Q15 it was $53 million–which is a 93% drop year over year. It’s clear that oilfield services companies like Halliburton are being asked to discount their prices by producers and consequently they bear the brunt of the downturn…
Whatever happened to the shotgun wedding between Halliburton and Baker Hughes–two of the largest oilfield services companies in the United States? After all, the boards for both companies approved the “blissful union” back in March (see 
The third shoe has now dropped. On Monday we told you that Schlumberger has cut an additional 11,000 jobs–20,000 total now gone–from the payroll (see