Once upon a time, before Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) made an indecent proposal to Williams to buy them out (see Energy Transfer Makes “Indecent Proposal” to Buy Williams for $48B), a deal that eventually fell apart, Williams the stockholding corporate mother ship had planned to buy out all of the “units” in subsidiary Williams Partners, a master limited partnership (MLP). But when ETE insisted on buying Williams, that ended the program of Williams (stock ticker WMB) from buying out Williams Partners (stock ticker WPZ). However, on Friday WMB announced it will purchase 6.975 million units (the equivalent of shares of stock in an MLP) for $250 million. Is this the revival of Williams’ original plan to merge what is now two entities on paper into one?…
