Word: conoco
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...bidding for Conoco continues to rise because of the company's huge treasure chest of natural resources. Conoco has oil drilling rigs from the Gulf of Mexico to the South China Sea, coal mines from West Virginia to Alberta, natural gas wells from Texas to the North Sea and uranium deposits from New Mexico to Niger. Since the first oil price explosion in 1973, the value of Conoco's assets has soared from $2.6 billion to $14 billion. The firm's oil and gas holdings alone have a value of $2.3 billion on Conoco's books...
...Conoco is not the only resource-rich firm that is ripe for acquisition. High interest rates have depressed the price of stocks, including the shares in many energy and mineral companies. Speculators suffering from what Wall Streeters call the Conoco syndrome are now swarming to buy shares of corporations they think will be the next takeover targets. Their favorites seem to be medium-size oil companies. In the past two weeks, the price of Cities Service stock has surged by 12%, Marathon Oil shares by 19% and Kerr-McGeeby...
...Edward Kennedy and Howard Metzenbaum. Says Metzenbaum: "If Mr. Reagan wants to eliminate the antitrust laws, he ought to come up here with legislation, not skulk around accomplishing the same thing through inaction." Republican Senator Strom Thurmond promised last week that his Judiciary Committee would hold hearings on the Conoco question...
...many Washington antitrust experts, including some within the Justice Department, predict that the Government will ultimately approve a merger between Conoco and one of its suitors-even Mobil or Texaco. They point out that contrary to conventional wisdom, the oil industry is highly competitive. Under present antitrust guidelines, the Government considers an industry to be exceedingly concentrated if four or fewer firms control 75% of the market. In the oil business, the top four companies account for less than 20% of sales. By contrast, four auto firms control 70% of the market, while four steel companies have 44% of that...
...acquisition of Conoco by even one of the biggest oil companies would not drastically alter the industry's balance of power. In the case of retail gasoline sales, for example, neither a Texaco-Conoco nor a Mobil-Conoco combine would hold more than 7.4% of the market. Observes one Administration antitrust lawyer: "It wouldn't be like Ford and General Motors merging...