Smith Energy Inc history

The H.C. Smith Oil Tool Company corporate title was retained until 1959, when the company went public and changed its name to Smith Tool Co.

The company was still contending with the difficulties caused by its declining business and the Gearhart Industries imbroglio when, on February 14, 1986, the Federal District Court for the Central District of California issued a ruling that rocked all those at Smith International.

In December 1987 Smith International emerged from under the protective umbrella of bankruptcy, coming out of a year in which the company recorded $264.4 million in sales and registered a $26.1 million loss in earnings.

Net productivity per employee during 1988 stood at $126,000, an all-time high, fueling hopes that the company had begun to wrest free from the debilitating first half of the decade.

In 1990 a proposed merger between Dresser Industries, Inc. and Smith International fell through when Dresser Industries backed out of the deal citing potential antitrust problems with the United States Justice Department.

Rock decided the time was right to exit the business, and in March 1993 he sold it to Halliburton for $270 million in Halliburton stock.

Smith saw its revenues surge past the $2 billion mark in 1998 thanks to its string of acquisitions.