NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Baker Hughes (BHI - Get Report) stock spiked by 7.45% to $53.05 on heavy volume on Wednesday, as General Electric (GE) considers buying assets worth up to $5 billion from Halliburton (HAL).
Last year, Halliburton proposed a $35 billion takeover of rival Baker Hughes. The merger will likely close in 2016 rather than this year, a Halliburton executive said today, Reuters reports.
GE is in advanced talks with Halliburton about purchasing its drill-bits and drilling-services divisions, sources told Bloomberg.
Halliburton is divesting assets in an effort to win regulatory approval for its Baker Hughes merger. The companies have already agreed to divest $5.2 billion in overlapping businesses, Reuters notes.
Halliburton's drill-bits and drilling-services divisions could have brought in up to $5 billion earlier this year, but the recent decline in oil prices might have depreciated the assets' worth, according to Bloomberg.
GE might purchase additional assets that Halliburton hopes to divest.