Is Oxy a better company now because of the APC acquisition, worse, or did the acquisition make little difference? I’m thinking in terms of shareholders, finances, operations, personnel, long term, etc.
7 replies (most recent on top)
The earnings release timing is all wrong. They should release before the Fed meeting and not after. This is not the first time this has happened.
Opportunity, timing (and skill) have been critical in my career. VH (and everyone else) could not have envisioned Covid and its impact on the world's oil consumption. Everything about the acquisition made sense right up to August 8th, 2019 (closing date). Hard to second guess the unique opportunity (APC) ,timing and the skill to pull the deal off.
History only proves it right by just plain luck. Kind of like having a good run on the roulette table. Compare the stock performance to COP. Now that’s a great company and not much hype.
Is Oxy a better company post merger...You bet!. The core APC assets were good enough for Chevron to acquire and the envy of many a oil company. The acquisition improved Oxy's position in the Permian basin, made them a leader in the GOM, a major oil producer in Algeria and the sales of Mozambique and West Africa helped close the sale. Even a chance that the deepwater Colombia assets will still pan out. Sickened that APC management sent the company down the river. It may have cost VH big $$ to land the prize but history is proving her right.
It wouldn’t have to be a major that acquires Oxy. Perhaps a larger market cap company like COP could pull it off. Warren would get out of the way for a few bucks more.
Once the debt is way down the company is still an acquisition candidate.
Worse. And we wasted multiple years because of it. But Oxy was at risk of being acquired at the time. That was the reason for the acquisition. So I guess you can make the case that things are better if your alternative is a world where Oxy was acquired by a major.