Exxon, Mobil Merge to Create World's Biggest Oil Company
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Go to our The combination of the nation's two biggest oil and gas companies will be called Exxon Mobil Corp. and would vault past Royal Dutch-Shell Group as the world's biggest energy company. It also would surpass General Motors Corp. as the largest U.S. company of any kind, with $203 billion in combined revenue last year.
The deal comes as oil companies are struggling with a deep slump in prices that is not expected to turn around for years. Exxon and Mobil expect $2.8 billion in savings by merging, but did not
Analysts expect thousands of employees will lose their jobs, with estimates running as high as 20,000 - or 16 percent of the companies's combined work force of 123,000.
"This merger will enhance our ability to be an effective global competitor in a volatile world economy and in an industry that is more and more competitive," the companies said in a joint
tatement.
The Exxon-Mobil deal tops British Petroleum's planned $58.5 purchase of Amoco Corp. as the largest industrial merger and, at current stock prices, outranks Bell Atlantic Corp.'s $72 billion
erger with GTE Corp. and the $70 billion union of SBC Communications Inc. and Ameritech Corp.
The deal brings together two of the biggest pieces of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil trust, the oil monopoly broken up by the federal government nearly 90 years ago. Mobil is the former Standard Oil of New York, while Exxon was once Standard Oil of New Jersey.
Exxon and Mobil will retain both of their well-known brand names, although analysts expect government regulators to force the companies to sell off numerous gas stations and refineries to
atisfy antitrust concerns.
The two companies have about 47,000 gas stations worldwide, roughly a third in the United States, and exploration and production operations worldwide.
