Petroleum Goliaths: Pickens and Oil Firms

petroleum goliaths: He targeted companies he considered undervalued mostly oil firms, including Gulf Oil and bought conspicuous chunks of stock in the expectation that management, to keep control of the business, would pay a premium to buy it back, according to The Independent. Fortune magazine dubbed Pickens the most hated man in corporate America during that era, while he presented himself as a drawling David battling petroleum Goliaths. Pickens, who has died aged 91, was one of a handful of fearsome, high-stakes corporate raiders who helped to define the Reagan-era boardroom scene and who set a raucous tone at shareholder meetings. Pickens' bold forays into the stock market and his visibility on magazine covers and on TV made him one of the few businessmen in the 1980s who were instantly recognisable to the average American. He disputed his reputation as a raider describing himself as an activist who changed the value of companies led by hapless executives. He was a ubiquitous presence in the media, which could not get enough of his folksy takedowns of corporate chieftains as greedy ignoramuses. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.