7 replies to this topic

[gdvanc]

BY KEVIN KINGSBURY

Exxon Mobil Corp. announced a $31 billion all-stock deal to acquire XTO Energy Inc., boosting the oil giant's presence in the natural-gas industry amid low prices for the commodity.

[full article]

Sorry, full article access only available to subscribers. I can send a non-subscriber link in email to those who are interested, but of course the details are likely available from other sources.


I hate to see XTO's efforts at preserving some of Fort Worth's architectural history come to an end. I also hate to think that they'll begin pulling out of their downtown buildings over time. Little may change in the short run, but it's hard to imagine that XOM will show the same amount of love.

[cberen1]

BY KEVIN KINGSBURY

Exxon Mobil Corp. announced a $31 billion all-stock deal to acquire XTO Energy Inc., boosting the oil giant's presence in the natural-gas industry amid low prices for the commodity.

[full article]

Sorry, full article access only available to subscribers. I can send a non-subscriber link in email to those who are interested, but of course the details are likely available from other sources.


I hate to see XTO's efforts at preserving some of Fort Worth's architectural history come to an end. I also hate to think that they'll begin pulling out of their downtown buildings over time. Little may change in the short run, but it's hard to imagine that XOM will show the same amount of love.

That sucks.

I wonder what Bob will do with his $325 Million payday?

[gdvanc]

I missed this on the first scan of the article:

When the deal is complete, Exxon plans to create a new operation to manage global development and production of unconventional resources. The operation will be based in Fort Worth, where XTO has its headquarters.

Hopefully, then, the buildings will continue to be filled for a while. Still hate to see another name crossed off the list of corporations headquartered in FW.

I wonder what Bob will do with his $325 Million payday?

I hope he buys and restores some more buildings. :)

[vjackson]

Adding insult to injury: According the NBC Nightly News, XTO is based in HOUSTON.

[cbellomy]

I don't think ExxonMobil will mess much with XTO's FW ops in the near term. The gas field is here and the office space is cheap compared to Houston. I don't think much of them as a corporate citizen, though, to put it lightly.

[gdvanc]

couple of articles from wednesday's S-T. i'm sure most have seen them, but i'll add them for completeness and to risk further discussion:

Lawsuits claim XTO management shortchanged stockholders in Exxon deal
-- i say the "XTO is worth more because of likely future global warming regulations" claim is unfounded. unless most of the people buying and selling XTO were all ignorant of such an eventuality, that would already have been priced into the pre-announcement market price.

Fracking ban could scuttle Exxon buyout of XTO
-- anyone know how a fracking ban would affect XTO's operations (regardless of any impact on the deal)? they specialize in tapping hard-to-tap reserves; is this method a primary one to accomplish that? [it was so tempting to use "fracking" as an adjective throughout this comment.]

[RD Milhollin]

I sure hate to see this successful, hard-driving, Fort Worth-based company swallowed up by a faceless international conglomerate with a serious lack of social justice and business fairness (my opinion). Perhaps if XTO could convince E-M to build a architecturally significant 50-60-story headquarters building on the site of the old Landmark Building I would soften my opinion, but in the meantime I am concerned about the massive energy conglomerate mergers of recent years. I feel the FTC should oppose the E-M/XTO merger on antitrust grounds, so as prevent Exxon from becoming a company "too large to fail" in the next downturn, if they haven't reached that status already. I will go a step further and say that Exxon and the other US energy-goliaths should be broken up like Teddy Roosevelt did to other oligopolies a hundred years ago, in the name of preserving a "free market" in the energy sector.

So... how about that building?

[David Love]

I'd guess this would mean an end to their practice of restoring downtown buildings to their original luster.