Baker Hughes vs Google: Founders, CEOs and History

Company facts

Founders

CEOs and their tenures

Timeline: Baker Hughes and Google side by side

1. 1907Baker Hughes

   Reuben C. Baker patents the Well Casing Shoe

   On July 16, 1907, Reuben Carlton Baker was granted U.S. Patent No. 860,115 for the Well Casing Shoe, a device that kept oil flowing while casing was run into a well.

2. 1909Baker Hughes

   Howard R. Hughes Sr. patents the two-cone roller drill bit

   Howard R. Hughes Sr., working with Walter B. Sharp, tested a dual-cone roller bit on a rig at Goose Creek, Texas, and was granted U.S. patents on August 10, 1909.

3. 1913Baker Hughes

   Baker Casing Shoe Company founded in Coalinga, California

   Baker created the Baker Casing Shoe Company to manufacture and license his casing accessories. The design of the Baker casing shoe stayed essentially unchanged for about 40 years and the business became a pillar of the emerging oilfield service sector.

4. 1915Baker Hughes

   Sharp-Hughes renamed Hughes Tool Company

   Walter B. Sharp died in 1912 and Hughes acquired his partner stake. The business was renamed Hughes Tool Company in 1915. Its rock bits funded the fortune later inherited by Howard Hughes Jr.

5. 1928Baker Hughes

   Baker Casing Shoe Company renamed Baker Oil Tools

   The company was renamed Baker Oil Tools, Inc. as it widened its range from casing shoes into well completion and production equipment.

6. 1976Baker Hughes

   Baker Oil Tools reorganised as Baker International Corporation

   The Baker businesses were reorganised under the Baker International Corporation holding company, the entity that would merge with Hughes Tool eleven years later.

7. 1987Baker Hughes

   Baker International and Hughes Tool merge to form Baker Hughes Incorporated

   The merger was formally completed in early April 1987 once a Justice Department consent decree was signed and filed, and the Los Angeles Times reported the combination at about $1.2 billion. James D.

8. 1990Baker Hughes

   Baker Hughes buys Eastman Christensen

   Baker Hughes acquired Eastman Christensen, a specialist in directional drilling equipment and measurement-while-drilling tools. The capability became the core of what is now the Well Construction product line.

9. 1998Baker Hughes

   Baker Hughes acquires Western Atlas in a $5.5 billion merger

   Baker Hughes and Western Atlas signed a definitive merger agreement valued at $5.5 billion in May 1998, adding seismic acquisition, wireline logging and reservoir evaluation. The Western Atlas wireline division became Baker Atlas.

10. 1998Google

    Google Founded

    Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google after developing PageRank at Stanford University. The search engine ranked web pages by link authority, which made results feel more relevant than portal-era competitors.

11. 2000Baker Hughes

    Michael E. Wiley becomes chairman, president and chief executive

    After Max L. Lukens resigned in January 2000 and director Joe B. Foster served as interim chairman, president and chief executive, Baker Hughes named former ARCO executive Michael Wiley as president, chairman and chief executive effective August 14, 2000.

12. 2000Google

    AdWords Launch

    Google launched AdWords in 2000 and connected advertising to search intent. Businesses could pay to appear near relevant queries, eventually through auction-based performance advertising.

13. 2004Google

    Google IPO

    Google went public in 2004 using an auction process and priced 19,605,052 shares at $85, raising about $1.67B. The IPO gave the company capital for hiring, data centers, acquisitions, and global expansion.

14. 2005Google

    Android Acquisition

    Google acquired Android in 2005 to secure a role in mobile operating systems before smartphones became the main internet device. Android later gave Google global reach through manufacturers such as Samsung and many others.

15. 2006Baker Hughes

    Baker Hughes exits the WesternGeco seismic joint venture

    Schlumberger bought the Baker Hughes 30% interest in the WesternGeco seismic joint venture for $2.4 billion, ending the partnership formed in 2000 and removing seismic acquisition from the Baker Hughes portfolio.

16. 2006Google

    YouTube Acquisition

    Google closed the YouTube acquisition in 2006 for stock valued at $1.65B. The deal gave Google a user-generated video platform, creator ecosystem, and advertising surface outside text search before online video had a mature business model.

17. 2007Baker Hughes

    Baker Hughes pays $44.1 million to settle Kazakhstan bribery charges

    On April 26, 2007, subsidiary Baker Hughes Services International pleaded guilty to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations and paid an $11 million criminal fine for payments routed to an official in connection with the Karachaganak field in Kazakhstan.

18. 2008Google

    DoubleClick Acquisition

    Google acquired DoubleClick for $3.1B to expand its advertising infrastructure beyond search. The deal strengthened display advertising, ad serving, and publisher relationships. It helped Google build a broader ad-tech stack.

19. 2010Baker Hughes

    Baker Hughes completes the $5.5 billion BJ Services acquisition

    Baker Hughes closed its cash-and-stock acquisition of pressure pumping and cementing company BJ Services on April 28, 2010. The Justice Department required the divestiture of BJ vessel-based stimulation assets in the U.S.

20. 2014Baker Hughes

    Halliburton agrees to buy Baker Hughes for $34.6 billion

    On November 17, 2014, Halliburton and Baker Hughes announced a definitive stock-and-cash agreement valued at $34.6 billion. The deal drew antitrust review in the United States and Europe almost immediately.

21. 2014Google

    DeepMind Acquisition

    Google acquired DeepMind in 2014 to deepen its artificial intelligence research bench. DeepMind later became known for AlphaGo and other breakthroughs in reinforcement learning and scientific AI.

22. 2015Google

    Alphabet Restructuring

    Google restructured into Alphabet Inc. In 2015, separating core Google from Other Bets. The move gave investors clearer visibility into Search, YouTube, Android, and Cloud economics while preserving room for Waymo, Verily, Calico, and X.

23. 2016Baker Hughes

    Halliburton deal abandoned and Halliburton pays a $3.5 billion fee

    The Justice Department sued on April 6, 2016, to block the combination. The companies terminated the merger agreement on May 1, 2016, and Halliburton paid Baker Hughes the $3.5 billion termination fee by May 4, 2016.

24. 2017Baker Hughes

    Baker Hughes combines with GE Oil and Gas; Lorenzo Simonelli becomes CEO

    The combination closed on July 3, 2017, creating Baker Hughes, a GE company. Baker Hughes shareholders received a special cash dividend of $17.50 per share and 37.5% of the new company, with GE holding 62.5%.

25. 2019Baker Hughes

    Company renamed Baker Hughes Company and GE drops below a majority stake

    GE sold shares in September 2019 for about $2.7 billion in net proceeds, cutting its holding to roughly 38.4%.

26. 2019Google

    Sundar Pichai Becomes Alphabet CEO

    Sundar Pichai became CEO of Alphabet in 2019 after Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped back from daily operations. Pichai inherited a company facing cloud competition, antitrust scrutiny, privacy pressure, and rising AI expectations.

27. 2021Baker Hughes

    Stock listing moves from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq

    Baker Hughes announced on October 27, 2021 that it would move its Class A common stock and listed bonds to the Nasdaq Global Select Market, and trading there began on December 7, 2021 under the same BKR ticker.

28. 2022Baker Hughes

    GE ownership ends and Baker Hughes suspends most Russian activity

    The 2022 Form 10-K states that GE no longer had an economic interest in Baker Hughes Holdings LLC as of December 31, 2022, down from 11.4% a year earlier.

29. 2023Google

    Google DeepMind Integration

    Alphabet combined major AI research efforts under Google DeepMind to accelerate frontier model development. The move followed competitive pressure from OpenAI and Microsoft.

30. 2025Baker Hughes

    Record FY2025 adjusted EBITDA, orders and free cash flow

    Revenue was $27.733B, roughly flat against $27.829B in 2024, with attributable net income of $2.588B. Adjusted EBITDA reached a record $4,825M, orders a record $29,585M including a record $14,871M at IET, and free cash flow a record $2,732M.

31. 2025Google

    FY2025 Revenue Tops $402B

    Alphabet reported FY2025 revenue of $402.836B and net income of $132.170B. The milestone showed that Search ads, YouTube, Cloud, and subscriptions kept scaling despite regulatory and AI disruption concerns.

32. 2026Baker Hughes

    Chart Industries acquired and two businesses divested

    Baker Hughes completed its $13.6 billion acquisition of Chart Industries on July 16, 2026 and set it up as a third reporting segment led by senior vice president Jim Apostolides, targeting $325 million of annualised cost synergies within three years.

Acquisitions

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