MDN loves capitalism–the BEST economic system ever devised by humans, benefiting the most people and lifting more out of poverty than any other system in the world. Capitalism is the free market making its own decisions about where, and how, to invest. But there are downsides. One of the negatives with capitalism–in the U.S. version of it anyway–is putting up with loathsome corporate raiders. Corporate raiders buy up enough shares in a publicly traded company to force that company to sell off assets and slash employees in order to drive the price of the stock up so they can turn around and sell their shares at a huge profit. Think of the snake Carl Icahn and what he’s done to Chesapeake Energy (via his toady Doug Lawler). The media today has euphemistically renamed what they used to call corporate raiders to “activist investors.” Same thing with the same end result.
So we were sad to see that a corporate raider is now targeting National Fuel Gas (NFG), the Buffalo, NY-based utility company that also owns a sizable Marcellus drilling division called Seneca Resources. Corporate raider Mario Gabelli has snapped up 9.1% of NFG’s stock, and now he’s making noise about forcing the company to sell off Seneca Resources, which he thinks will raise the stock by another $25/share–from the current $75 to around $100/share–making him even richer than he is now. We think corporate raiders are a cancer on the oil and gas industry. Here’s more about Gabelli pressuring NFG…
