Rice Brothers Attempt to Take Over EQT, Install Toby as CEO
“Well, the EQT situation is a total mess.” So began a super secret email to MDN from a highly-placed source we implicitly trust. Not long after receiving that email, we spotted a press release from the Rice brothers, Toby and Derek, who along with their other two brothers, previously founded and built Rice Energy into a major Marcellus/Utica operator. The Rice brothers sold their company to EQT last year for $8.2 billion (see EQT Buys Rice Energy in $8.2B Deal, Becomes #1 Gas Producer in US). As part of the deal, the boys took 80% of their compensation in the form of EQT stock. The Rice boys now say EQT and its stock performance ain’t doin’ so hot. They (the Rice boys) think they have the solution. The solution is to install Rice leadership at EQT. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate head fake? Sell your company to a much larger company, creating the the largest natgas producer in the U.S.–then take it ALL over. A reverse takeover. Dan Rice III didn’t raise stupid boys.
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The “best of the rest”–stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading: Antero Resources appoints Paul Korus to Board of Directors; NY Attorney General seeks to sink Exxon climate appeal; Sunoco pushes Pa. PUC to ax pipeline shutdown bid; After bitter fight in Minnesota, gas plant debate moves to Wisconsin; Summit Midstream announces senior management changes; After active duty, veterans find new purpose in the oil and gas industry; Buybacks: Why pipeline companies should invest in themselves; The oil and gas situation: A time for setting records; Natural gas perspectives before this winter ends; As the U.S. pushes fossil fuels at COP24, protesters howl – but allies emerge, too.