Free Republic

The Baker Hughes/Halliburton merger saga continues to drag on. Jefferies recently downgraded the probability of the deal being completed from 85 percent to 67 percent, indicating concern over the antitrust review being run by the U.S. government. Haliburton will have to sell roughly $7.5 billion in assets to get regulatory approval for the deal. More importantly though, it will have to sell those assets to a single buyer. Given that price tag, conglomerates General Electric and Siemens look like the most likely buyers. There is always the possibility of a dark horse bidder like Berkshire Hathaway or Blackstone, but that...

Booming business for oil-field-services company Schlumberger is good news for Houston. Flush with profits amid the continued growth in oil and gas exploration, the France-based company could add up to 500 local jobs annually for the next two to three years, Andrew Gould, Schlumberger's chief executive and chairman, said in an interview. The world's largest oil-services provider is also beefing up spending to develop new product lines here and expects to farm out more work to Houston-area companies to keep up with its aggressive growth plans into the next decade, he said. The expansion comes as Schlumberger, with about 5,000...