Baker Hughes's origin story begins with two separate inventions that transformed the American oil industry in the early twentieth century. Reuben Carlton "Carl" Baker Sr. was born on July 18, 1872, and arrived in Los Angeles on April 4, 1895, with a new suit and 95 cents in his pocket. His first job was driving a horse team hauling oil in the Los Angeles City Oil Field for $2.00 per twelve-hour day. He progressed to oilwell pumper and tool dresser, and by 1898 had formed a partnership with contract driller Irving Carl that owned two rigs. In 1899, Baker moved to Coalinga, California, where he encountered hard rock formations that destroyed conventional casing during drilling. On July 16, 1907, he was awarded U.S. Patent No. 860,115 for the Baker Well Casing Shoe—a device that ensured uninterrupted oil flow through a well by guiding casing past obstructions. On August 14, 1907, he organized the Baker Casing Shoe Company in Coalinga to manufacture and license the invention. The company generated $600 to $1,500 per month in royalties during its first five years. By 1918, Baker had bought a machine shop and transitioned from licensing to direct manufacturing. He would obtain more than 150 U.S. patents in his lifetime, despite never advancing beyond the third grade. Baker Casing Shoe became Baker Oil Tools in 1928, Baker International in 1976, and by 1987 employed 14,000 people with $2.4 billion in revenue. Howard Robard Hughes Sr. took a different path. In 1909, he and business partner Walter B. Sharp founded the Sharp-Hughes Tool Company in Houston, Texas, after successfully testing the first two-cone roller cutter drill bit. This invention enabled rotary drilling through harder, deeper rock formations than was possible with the fishtail bits then in use. Hughes patented the two-cone bit in 1909, and when Sharp died in 1912, Hughes acquired his partner's stake and renamed the company Hughes Tool Company in 1915. The Hughes two-cone bit dominated the global drill bit market for three decades and generated the fortune that would fund his son Howard Hughes Jr.'s aviation, film, and real estate empire. Hughes Tool Company went public in 1972 and by 1987 had $1.1 billion in revenue. The two companies competed for 80 years—Baker in well completion and production equipment, Hughes in drilling bits and tools—before merging on April 5, 1987, to form Baker Hughes Incorporated. The merger created the world's third-largest oilfield services company with $3.5 billion in combined revenue. Max L. Lukens, CEO of Baker International, became chairman and CEO of the merged entity, while John R. Russell, president of Western Atlas, became president. The merger rationale was vertical integration: Baker's completion and production technologies combined with Hughes's drilling expertise would create a full-lifecycle service provider. The merged company immediately began acquiring complementary businesses: Eastman Christensen (directional drilling, 1990), EXLOG (mud logging, 1992), Petrolite (specialty chemicals, 1997), and the transformative $5.5 billion acquisition of Western Atlas in 1998, which added seismic data acquisition, wireline logging, and reservoir characterization. By 2000, Baker Hughes had $7.5 billion in revenue and 35,000 employees. The Western Atlas acquisition also created WesternGeco, a seismic joint venture with Schlumberger that Baker Hughes exited in 2006 for $2.4 billion. The company's next defining moment came in 2014, when Halliburton announced a $35 billion acquisition of Baker Hughes. The deal, which would have created an OFSE giant rivaling SLB, was blocked by the U.S. Department of Justice in April 2016 on antitrust grounds, forcing Baker Hughes to pay Halliburton a $3.5 billion breakup fee and operate as a standalone company in a weakened competitive position. The Halliburton merger failure, while financially costly, created the opening for the 2017 GE Oil and Gas merger. General Electric, which had built a $15 billion oil and gas equipment business through acquisitions of VetcoGray, Nuovo Pignone, and Druck, sought a partner with field service capabilities. The $7.4 billion merger, completed on July 3, 2017, created Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE), with GE holding 62.5% of shares. Lorenzo Simonelli, who had led GE Oil and Gas since 2013, became CEO of the combined entity. The GE merger added gas turbines, compressors, pumps, valves, and LNG systems to Baker Hughes's portfolio, creating the IET segment that now generates 43.8% of revenue. GE began divesting its stake in 2019, selling $2.7 billion in shares, and completed full divestiture in 2021 by selling its remaining 37% stake for approximately $5.5 billion. The company rebranded as Baker Hughes Company (BKR) and adopted a new green logo signaling its energy transition ambitions. The 2024 annual results—$27.8 billion in revenue, $4.6 billion in adjusted EBITDA, and $2.3 billion in free cash flow—represent the culmination of a seven-year transformation from a GE-controlled conglomerate to an independent energy technology company with a unique hybrid business model.