The major drilling and completion services provider has agreed to acquire Ulterra, a provider of specialized drill bit solutions, for $370 million in cash and 34.9 million shares of Patterson-UTI common stock.

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In announcing the agreement, Andy Hendricks, Patterson-UTI chief executive officer, commented, “Both Patterson-UTI and Ulterra share a culture of innovation and a focus on superior service quality, building deep and highly collaborative relationships with customers. Ulterra's industry leading position in the North American PDC drill bit market will expand our operational and technology portfolio and strengthen our position as a leading drilling and completions company. The addition of Ulterra to our drilling offering and our recent announcement to merge with NexTier Oilfield Solutions advances our strategy to enhance our positions in both drilling and completions, areas where Patterson-UTI has a strong 45-year history of operations and innovation.”

Having just agreed to a $5.4 billion merger with NexTier Oilfield Solutions, Patterson-UTI Energy went shopping again, coming away with Ulterra Drilling Technologies.

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Fort Worth-based Ulterra, founded in 2005, designs, manufactures, sells and rents PDC drill bits and is a leading provider of those drill bits in North America, with operations across the most active basins. The company also has a global footprint with customers in more than 30 countries. It has sales, manufacturing and repair facilities throughout North and South America, the Middle East and Asia.

Patterson-UTI APEX-XK 1500 oil rig drill. Tuesday, May 9, 2017, near College Station. ( Marie D. De Jesus / Houston Chronicle )

In that same announcement, Mike Holcomb, Patterson-UTI’s chief operating officer, added, “Ulterra’s growing Middle East presence will broaden our geographic footprint and provide strong relationships with key customers in this international market. Additionally, Ulterra’s data-centric approach to manufacturing, operations, and marketing has been key to their success in the PDC drill bit business. Their proprietary BitHub data platform is complementary to our PTEN+ data platform and will further expand our comprehensive data analytics capabilities from the drill bit to the well completion.”