For $3 billion, General Electric Co. is acquiring Dresser Inc., a Texas-based maker of compression gas engines, control valves and related equipment for fuel distribution.
Separately, Citigroup Inc. sold Norwalk-based GE Capital some $1.6 billion in retail credit card assets and customer relationships with 18,000 small and mid-sized businesses.
Fairfield-based GE will add Dresser to its GE Energy division. Dresser had revenues of $2 billion and earnings of $318 million in 2009. The company”™s controlling shareholders include First Reserve Corp., a private equity fund based in Greenwich that focuses on energy investments.
Founded in 1880 with a product to keep oil and water separated during underground drilling, Dresser formed a joint venture with Ingersoll Rand in 1987 to form Dresser Rand Inc., based at the time in Corning, N.Y.
In 1998 Dresser Industries was acquired by Halliburton Co. in a $7.7 billion deal, but in 2001 was spun back out as a standalone company based in Addison, Texas, and backed by First Reserve.
– Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this story inaccurately described Dresser’s affiliations with Ingersoll Rand and Halliburton.
