Perfomix history

Baker licensed his patents and incorporated the Baker Casing Shoe Company in 1913, mainly to protect his numerous patents on products that would soon become the industry standard.

The 19-year-old Howard Hughes, Jr., inherited the company in 1924 following the death of his father.

In 1928, after successfully manufacturing tools in Huntington Park, California, for several years, Baker called the company Baker Oil Tools, Inc., a name it would carry for 40 years.

In the ten years after 1948 it opened 50 new offices in 16 states.

Clark acquired some 20 companies, the largest of which was Reed Tool Company, a drill-bit manufacturer purchased in 1975.

Baker operations were begun in Peru, Nigeria, Libya, Iran, and Australia, among other countries, and in 1976 the company changed its name to Baker International Corporation.

Hughes, of course, felt he was personally diversified, so he never really considered diversifying the tool company," Raymond Holliday, a former Hughes chairman, told Business Week in October 1980.

By 1981--a peak year in the industry--new business activities, which largely meant non-drill-bit products and services, accounted for 55 percent of the company's sales.

When the bottom fell out of the market in 1982, Hughes found itself a bloated, overextended, and debt-ridden concern.

In 1985 Hughes had been awarded $122 million from Dresser Industries, Inc. for patent violation.

Indeed, the United States Justice Department announced on January 25, 1987, that it would attempt to block the merger, citing reduced competition in markets for some oil-exploration machinery.

The company was already profitable by fiscal 1988.

In May 1989 its longtime money-losing mining equipment operation was sold to Tampella Ltd. of Finland for $155 million.

In 1992 Baker Hughes spent $350 million to buy Teleco Oilfield Services Inc. from Sonat Inc.

Western Atlas, which had been spun off from Litton Industries Inc. in 1994, was the industry's leading geoscience firm, specializing in seismic exploration, reservoir description, and field development services, as well as down-hole data services.

The year 1997 was also noteworthy for the retirement of Woods, who had not only made the Baker Hughes merger happen but had also focused and bolstered the company's product and service lines through more than 30 separate divestments and acquisitions.

The company went into cost-cutting mode, slashing about 10,000 jobs from the payroll by the end of 1999 (about one-fourth of the total workforce), consolidating manufacturing facilities and field offices, and achieving nearly $1 billion in cost savings.

In the wake of this debacle, INTEQ's president was replaced, and in February 2000 Lukens resigned under pressure.