The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[OakesCS]

slb/ny times blog

Dew,
i thought the NYT article was reasonalble (blind squirrels ;^)).

they did miss some important bits o history: 1. SLB once owned a drillbit biz and that divesture may have been done under duress (before my time) and 2. the previous ceo also made a large purchase (Sema) shortly before his retirement which was the root of the afore-mentioned duress.

SLB has regained some offerings as part of this 'merger' and expands their portfolio in areas where we're possibly weaker than some competitors. Some folks may be worried about history repeating itself w/ regard to a large corporate purchase as the ceo is retiring but the differences are so many and great that any comparison is ludicrous.

the market and NYT writer obviously think the price was high but i have little doubt it will pay off. If you look at the relative stock prices of SLB and SII over the past 4 or 5 yrs, the divergence has been largest over the past few months so in a stock for stock purchase I think SLB's timing was good. The gap started closing a few weeks ago so looks to me like there was some leaking between the end-phase negotiations and the final agreement.

might also note that SII's CEO and CFO are former SLB employees. Not sure how that affected the negotiations but I think it will probably be advantageous during the integration. I am a bit curious as to whether SII's corporate officers will transfer into SLB and in what positions.
cheers,
Charlie