If you’ve read MDN for any length of time, you already know of the ongoing soap opera of corporate raiders attempting to pressure Williams, a huge pipeline company in the northeast (and in the rest of the country) into selling itself to Energy Transfer Equity–a deal that fell apart in June (see Dead as a Doornail: ETE Terminates Merger with Williams). You also know that one of the corporate raiders (Carl Icahn protege) Keith “Mini-Me” Meister tried to force Williams CEO Alan Armstrong to resign, and when that didn’t happen, Meister and five others quit the board of directors in a huff (see Half of Williams Board, Including 2 Corporate Raiders, Quit). The raiders’ sole purpose in forcing Armstrong out is to force a new sale to a different company, Enterprise Products Partners (see Here We Go Again: Enterprise Products Wants to Buy Williams). Williams isn’t having it and announced earlier this month they were on the hunt to replace three of the six losers who quit the board with bona fide/qualified/independent board members (see Williams to Appoint 3 New Board Members, Replace Raiders Who Quit). Last week Mini-Me Meister launched a proxy war to elect himself and nine other of his lackeys to the Williams board (see Corvex Raider Launches Hostile Takeover Attempt of Williams). Good news: Williams has confounded Meister by naming three new board members. Each of them comes with stellar qualifications to help guide the company into the future WITHOUT selling itself to line the pockets of corporate raiders…
