Bhge

General Electric’s largest industrial business unit is downsizing by 18% as it faces a disruptive marketplace, with depressed demand for natural gas and coal services and a surge toward alternative energies.

Lorenzo Simonelli, president and CEO of Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE), has added chairmanto his title, as expected, succeeding GE Chairman/CEO Jeff Immelt, who has retired from the BHGE board. BHGE board member J. Larry Nichols, chairman of Devon Energy Corp., also plans to resign from the board after serving on the Baker Hughes Inc. board for 16 years. With the two resignations, BHGE has reduced the size of its board to nine and named current GE-designee BHGE board member W. Geoffrey Beattie as the lead director. GE owns 62.5% of BHGE.

North America’s oil and gas business improved for Baker Hughes Inc. in the quarter preceding its merger with General Electric’s oil and gas unit, carried by a strong showing in the Lower 48 and the Gulf of Mexico, the company said Friday.

Billing itself as “the world’s first and only fullstream oil and gas company,” Baker Hughes Inc. and GE Oil & Gas announced Monday that their mega-merger — estimated at $32 billion — is complete.

Billing itself as “the world’s first and only fullstream oil and gas company,” Baker Hughes Inc. and GE Oil & Gas announced Monday that their mega-merger — estimated at $32 billion — is complete.