The U.S. Justice Department is moving to court in an attempt to block Halliburton Company’s nearly $35 billion purchase of Baker Hughes Inc. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware where the two companies are incorporated.
Halliburton and Baker Hughes are two of the world’s three leading providers of oilfield services. The deal has been in the making since November 2014 but the Justice Department indicated it is worried about the acquisition.
“The proposed deal between Halliburton and Baker Hughes would eliminate vital competition, skew energy markets and harm American consumers,” charged Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. “Our action makes clear that the Justice Department is committed to vigorously enforcing our antitrust laws. In the days ahead, we will continue to stand up for fair deals and free markets, and for the American people we are privileged to serve.”
Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the department’s Antitrust Division said the transaction is unprecedented in the breadth and scope of competitive overlaps and antitrust issues it presents.
“Halliburton and Baker Hughes are two of the three largest integrated oilfield service companies across the globe, and they compete to invent and sell products and services that are critical to energy exploration and production. We need to maintain meaningful competition in this important sector of our economy.”
The DOJ made a reference to the deal in a lawsuit it filed this week against ValueAct Capital which is a hedge fund that bought $2.5 billion in stock in the two companies. Attornies said in the lawsuit that the merger “threatens to substantially lessen competition in numerous markets.”
