Business school professors might tell you that in an acquisition, you should take the best of both companies and make the Newco “better”. That’s why I wrote the book - “...What They Didn’t Teach You In Business School”. Most people teaching have never been through an acquisition personally and just interviewed some CEO 10 years after the fact for a paper they wrote and think they understand corporate culture. They do not. The people that work at Oxy and CVX do so because they like...

2 weeks ago - I asked - “What happened to hostile takeovers?” Frankly - they are the only way to get deals done in this commodity environment and hedge fund/ private equity capital are the best positioned to get it started. With so much money on the sidelines in energy waiting to be deployed - what better way to recalibrate the industry? I, for one, am excited for the implications for the energy industry of Elliott Management’s hostile takeover bid for QEP. Elliott has $35b...

Elliott Management proposes $8.75/share to buy QEP this morning. Hostile, opportunistic and brilliantly timed. What’s that I smell in the air.... the American Dream!