Word: murchisons
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Funny Question. Murchison extends the same open-shirted informality to his business. One sure laugh at stockholder meetings of his key Delhi Oil Co. is provided by a stockholder, a mailman who has made a small fortune. He plaintively asks the same question year after year: "Clint, when you goin' to pay a dividend?" Delhi stockholders, who get few dividends, can afford to guffaw at this. They all know that Murchison is interested not in dividends but in piling up the lower-taxed capital gains. He achieves them for himself and his stockholders by "spinning" new companies...
...prime example of this is Murchison's Southern Union Gas Co., the foundation stone of his empire. Started as a gas producer and distributor, Southern Union's earnings were strictly limited by state utility commissions. Murchison "spun off" its gas-and-oil holdings into separate corporations, including Delhi Oil, Barker Dome, Aztec Oil & Gas, Arkansas Western Gas and Texas Southeastern Gas, whose earnings as producers were not regulated. Delhi Oil, the biggest of the children, has since wildcatted its way into 215 producing oil and gas wells in six states and oil reserves of more than 11 million...
Daring & Reason. Wheeler-Dealer Murchison deals in such big figures that, like many other oilmen, he automatically drops off the zeros when talking about his business. Recently, when asked how he made out on a certain deal, he smiled and held up seven fingers, meaning that he had made...
...Murchison, in all likelihood, would have been a success-and probably a millionaire-no matter where he lived. The proximity to Texas oil, plus the depletion allowance, gave him a chance to pyramid his millions. He has a trader's shrewd knowledge of human beings and a gambler's quiet ability to calculate the odds. He also has a banker's cold logic and an optimist's faith in U.S. business enterprise. A little bit of all these qualities is apparent in most of his deals...
...Bill of Rights meant a big boom in textbooks. With another eye on the moppet market, he bought 4% of Lionel Corp. for $630,000. Field & Stream Magazine ($1,300,000) and the James Heddon's fishing-tackle company in Michigan ($2,400,000) were naturals for Murchison, and not merely because of his abiding interest in rod and reel. Among other things, he was figuring on a basic change in the U.S. economy: "Shorter hours mean more fishing." Following the same line of thought, he leased Colorado's Royal Gorge Bridge, a tourist attraction complete with...