OXY's egregious boss ultimately forked up a whopping $55 billion for the company; including a $38 billion offer plus an assumption of Anadarko's debts. For supporting OXY's vanity acquisition, Berkshire received $10 billion in preferred stock with a hefty 8% dividend yield. There was also the little matter of paying Chevron $1 billion in break-off fees. When Hollub's aggressive intent for Anadarko became apparent (in April 11-12, 2019), OXY's stock was averaging just north of $65. Big question here is – if the U.S. oil patch excesses of small and medium players are a subject of ridicule and anger often constituting examples of oil industry excesses, why should OXY be regarded differently?

Source: Forbes June 26, 2020 19:15 UTC