Williams

Earlier this week Williams announced a deal to sell its Canadian businesses and assets to Inter Pipeline for $1 billion. Williams is wasting no time following the aborted merger attempt by Energy Transfer Equity to buy Williams. Following that aborted attempt, nearly half of the Williams board quit because they couldn’t get their grubby hands on big piles of money (see Half of Williams Board, Including 2 Corporate Raiders, Quit). Good riddance. Williams CEO Alan Armstrong has been under extreme pressure to step down–which he has resisted. Armstrong is soldiering on and this is his first big, bold move since the palace coup failed. Armstrong says the Canadian asset sale will help fund major capital projects in the second half of 2016…
Read More “Bold Move – Williams Selling Canadian Assets for $1B”

Nearly half of the Williams board (6 of 14 board members) were part of a cabal that tried to force the company to sell itself to Energy Transfer Equity. Following the aborted merger, six of Williams’ board members tried to engineer a palace coup to depose current CEO Alan Armstrong. The coup failed and the board members were either forced out, or resigned in disgust, we’re not sure (see Half of Williams Board, Including 2 Corporate Raiders, Quit). Among the board members pushing for a sale to ETE and pushing for the ouster of Armstrong, was Keith Meister, a disciple and student of evil corporate raider Carl Icahn. Another corporate raider investor who had joined forces with Meister was Eric Mandelblatt, from Soroban Capital Partners. We have an update. Meister is still pushing Williams to get a new board and get rid of Armstrong–as evidenced by a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. However, there’s been a split among the corporate raiders. Mandelblatt/Soroban is no longer colluding with Meister to push for board changes…
Read More “Corporate Raiders Hassling Williams Split Up”

Midstream giant Williams released their second quarter 2016 financial and operating update on Monday. After the deal by Energy Transfer Partners to buy Williams fell apart, some stockholders in Williams were waiting (agitating) to see what new strategy or direction the company might take. However, the “new” strategy is to keep doing what they’ve always done, according to CEO Alan Armstrong. What do we glean from the Williams 2Q16 update? For one thing, they lost $90 million in the second quarter, versus making $300 million in profit in 2Q15. That’s not so good. However, there are some promising projects on the way for Williams, including the Constitution Pipeline (once the courts slap New York around and force the state allow it), and the Atlantic Sunrise project in PA. Atlantic Sunrise is an expansion of one of the largest interstate pipeline systems in the country–the mighty Transcontinental Gas Pipeline (Transco). Below is the update from Williams, along with links to a transcript of their quarterly earnings phone call with analysts, and a link to their latest PowerPoint slide deck. We’ve also included analysis from Bloomberg on Williams’ “everything old is new again” strategy…
Read More “Williams 2Q16: Everything Old is New Again, Except for $90M Loss”

Are we finally, blessedly “done” with the ongoing soap opera that was the proposed takeover/merger of midstream giant Williams by fellow midstream giant Energy Transfer Equity? Can Williams now go back to its “considerable pile of knitting” (that pile meaning some 16 expansion projects)? Well, in a word, yes! Except….except if another suitor comes along who wants to buy Williams, which is a very real possibility. A couple of analysts mull over the possibilities now that the ETE plan to buy Williams is dead…
Read More “Analysts Speculate on Future of Williams, Post-ETE Merger Debacle”

Nearly half of the Williams board (6 of 14 board members) were part of a cabal that tried to force the company to sell itself to Energy Transfer Equity–a deal that went horribly wrong. Following the aborted merger, six of Williams’ board members tried to engineer a palace coup to depose current CEO Alan Armstrong. The coup failed and the board members were either forced out, or resigned in disgust (we’re not sure). Either way, it’s good news for Williams and their operations in the northeast. Among the board members pushing for a sale to ETE (and pushing for the ouster of Armstrong) was Keith Meister, a disciple and student of evil corporate raider Carl Icahn (see Bad News: Corporate Raiders Take Aim at Williams). Another corporate raider who was dug in like a chigger, Eric Mandelblatt, was also pushing to replace Armstrong (see Evil Corporate Raiders Double Investment (& Control) in Williams). On Friday Williams announced the chairman of the board, Frank MacInnis, is stepping down for “personal reasons” and that another five board members are leaving with him. Among those leaving are corporate raiders Meister and Mandelblatt. Good riddance…
Read More “Half of Williams Board, Including 2 Corporate Raiders, Quit”