Word: texaco
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...world of megadollar mergers, it is perhaps only fitting that court fines are also measured in billions. Three weeks ago, a Houston jury ordered Texaco to pay Pennzoil $10.5 billion in damages for snatching Getty Oil away from Pennzoil in a takeover battle. Judge Solomon Casseb last week was due to review the decision. He could uphold, overturn or reduce the award. Journalists, high-priced lawyers, Wall Street traders and more than 200 onlookers last Tuesday squeezed into a cramped fifth-floor room in the Harris County Civil Courts Building, anticipating a decision. Casseb's verdict was expected...
...Stunned Texaco officials said that it could mean the company's "obliteration." The third-largest oil company in the U.S., Texaco has a net worth of $13 billion, barely enough to cover the award. Texaco stock, which since Nov. 19 had plunged from $39.25 to $30.75, fell to $29.75 by the end of last week. Said Texaco Attorney Gibson Gayle: "What we have is the most devastating specter of disaster in legal history. It's portending the destruction of a major American company...
...giants. Pennzoil's stock, which stood at $49.875 a month ago, closed at $66.125 last week. Upon hearing Casseb's ruling, Pennzoil Attorney Joseph Jamail and Chairman J. Hugh Liedtke exchanged bear hugs and laughed aloud. When a reporter asked a jubilant Liedtke whether he still might settle with Texaco, he replied, "We're always willing to discuss matters. The problem is that dealing with Texaco is like trying to frisk a wet seal...
...Texaco won one concession in its eleventh-hour negotiation with Pennzoil: a delay in the imposition of a bond. Normally, if Texaco wished to appeal Casseb's decision, it would be required to post bond to prevent Pennzoil from seizing the property it won in court. The bond would be worth the amount of the decision plus attorney's fees and interest, in this case, about $12 billion. Texaco said that it could not come up with so much money without going bankrupt. Pennzoil agreed to a grace period during which Texaco can prepare an appeal--or, perhaps, a settlement...
...billion, or $110 a share, to buy 43% of Getty. The remaining 57% was to stay in Getty family hands. The two companies announced the merger to the press, signed a memorandum of agreement, even had a champagne toast. But before the paper work was completed, Texaco Chairman John McKinley approached Getty with an offer worth $10.2 billion, or $125 a share, for the entire company. On Jan. 6, Getty's board of directors accepted his offer...