Halliburton to Buy Baker Hughes for $34.6 Billion

Halliburton Co. the second-biggest oilfield services provider, agreed to buy No. 3 Baker Hughes Inc., taking advantage of plunging crude prices to set up the biggest takeover of a U.S. energy company in three years.

Baker Hughes shareholders, whose stock since July had dropped 32 percent to $50.98 before reports of the deal surfaced, will receive 1.12 Halliburton shares plus $19 in cash for each share they own, the companies said in a statement today. That values the shares at $78.62 apiece, representing a 31 percent premium to Baker Hughes’s Nov. 14 closing price.