Baker Hughes to Go It Alone as GE Seeks Exit From Oil Business

Baker Hughes will emerge from the shadow of parent General Electric Co. amid unprecedented turmoil and dislocation in the global oil business.

GE’s plan to unload its 62.5 percent stake in the oilfield-services company over the next two to three years will leave Baker Hughes in much the same place it was before the industrial conglomerate absorbed it last year: battling the behemoths of oil services—Schlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton Co.—for customers and contracts.

Since that combination, rising crude prices haven’t translated into improved results in many parts of the globe and Baker Hughes’s ...