"General Electric to buy oilfield equipment maker" by Jonathan Fahey | Associated Press, April 09, 2013
NEW YORK — General Electric Co. has agreed to buy the oilfield equipment maker Lufkin Industries Inc. for $3.1 billion, furthering an effort by GE to increase its oil and gas operations....
CEO Jeff Immelt is in the process of transforming GE from a sprawling conglomerate to one that is more tightly focused on providing services and equipment to industrial customers. The company has shed divisions such as NBC Universal and is shrinking its banking operations.
Tran$lation: They no longer care about bringing good things to life for bankrupt, tapped-out, or broke Americans.
Related: Obama Laid Off Jobs Council
I'm glad he found work.
Immelt indicated the company would use some of its enormous cash balance to buy mid-sized companies that fit well into what the company already does. GE makes aircraft engines, natural gas-fired turbines and generators, wind turbines, medical devices, and locomotives.
GE is putting particular focus on oil and gas, hoping to capitalize on the boom in extracting oil from difficult places.
I thought we were supposed to be converting because of climate change.
Lufkin makes pumping equipment that helps drillers extract more oil out of older fields or ones that need to be pumped because the oil and gas underground is not under enough pressure to be forced to the surface naturally.
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