# OKCpedia > Businesses & Employers >  American Energy Partners Business Practices (Aubrey McClendon)

## metro

Obviously we knew Aubrey's days were numbered as CEO, but what if he pulls a Tom Ward, go buys another up-and-coming O&G company, moves it to OKC, and grows it ala Sandridge, although hopefully with better fiscal policy. Think of the impact it could have on OKC including the much revered "mystery tower". Just a thought.

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## LakeEffect

If he really wants to run things his way, he'd need to have the capital or private additional capital to keep it from going public. He has many other personal investments and companies, so he's bound to try and grow some of them.

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## BoulderSooner

i would be shocked if AKM doesn't get back in the game so to speak ..

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## ou48A

It would not be hard for AKM to start buying and selling lessees or even drill them as a junior partner.
There are companies who do exactly this^ and only employ a hand full of employees.
For a billionaire this would only take a minimal amount of money to start.

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## onthestrip

At this point in his life Im not sure Aubrey would be too keen on being a junior partner or going to work on small time leasing and drilling activities. I can picture him thinking hes a little bigger than that.

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## ou48A

> At this point in his life Im not sure Aubrey would be too keen on being a junior partner or going to work on small time leasing and drilling activities. I can picture him thinking hes a little bigger than that.


Why?
CHK was a junior partner on some projects.
Even the largest corporation in the world XOM is a junior partner on some projects.

This is about making money and not about feelings. AKM knows he needs to be making money so he can make more money so he can make even more money, then he can make the big money. He knows this and he know he has time in his life to do this.

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## Rover

Seems like there is plenty of acreage of near expiring leases that Aubrey could put together a nice portfolio for a start-up or to buy an existing company to agressively grow.  The low gas prices won't last forever and he knows it.  Reserves are relatively cheap.

Notice his non-compete is only 6 months.  It would take that long to form or negotiate a company.  I just can't see AM eating bon-bons and going to Thunder games every night.  He is a A+++++ personality.

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## ou48A

> At this point in his life Im not sure Aubrey would be too keen on being a junior partner or going to work on small time leasing and drilling activities. I can picture him thinking hes a little bigger than that.


There are companies who trade on the NYSE who act as near 100% junior partners with their drilling activities and own the rights to leases. Check out NOG.

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## ou48A

> Seems like there is plenty of acreage of near expiring leases that Aubrey could put together a nice portfolio for a start-up or to buy an existing company to agressively grow.  The low gas prices won't last forever and he knows it.  Reserves are relatively cheap.
> 
> Notice his non-compete is only 6 months.  It would take that long to form or negotiate a company.  I just can't see AM eating bon-bons and going to Thunder games every night.  He is a A+++++ personality.


+ He would have the advantage of hopefully of learing that he should not become too over extended.
There are good opportunities for a man of his skills.
I wish him well and future prosperity.

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## metro

> Seems like there is plenty of acreage of near expiring leases that Aubrey could put together a nice portfolio for a start-up or to buy an existing company to agressively grow.  The low gas prices won't last forever and he knows it.  Reserves are relatively cheap.
> 
> Notice his non-compete is only 6 months.  It would take that long to form or negotiate a company.  I just can't see AM eating bon-bons and going to Thunder games every night.  He is a A+++++ personality.


Yep, if you're an entrepreneur, it's in your blood to go out and make the kill so to speak, the thrill of the hunt is what keeps guys like this going.

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## Rover

Cramer says he will be back in the game.

Cramer Quick Take: Don't Buy Chesapeake on Takeover Rumors - TheStreet

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## zookeeper

I don't think I would trust him. What he does next may not even be up to him as he's still under federal criminal investigation by the Department of Justice.

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## DowntownMan

I wonder if Aubrey starts a new company...will he keep it private and not go public that way he doesnt have to answer to shareholders?

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## Teo9969

> I wonder if Aubrey starts a new company...will he keep it private and not go public that way he doesnt have to answer to shareholders?


I'm not saying he couldn't, but he'd be heavily heavily scrutinized if he went public with a new company. He would likely not get any benefit of the doubt. I would think at this stage of the game that he's connected enough that he could build quite a large company without getting shareholders involved.

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## bombermwc

He's 53, and has a crapton of money. At this ponint, he could happily retire and never work again if he wanted. Since he's decided to get into the whole world of developement lately, i'd be more likely to see him leading a real estate firm for his special projects than anything. No, it won't rake in the cash like his other ventures, but his days of a waterfall of money coming in are over. 

However, he has plenty in terms of stock assets as well. He's not going to be running around in an old Chevy pickup folks, so don't start shedding tears. The way he's treated his employees over the years, it's sort of a just desert that he got tossed. All his project-based employment structure was a crock. He thought nothing of laying off (and did) several hundred people at a time because that project was done. What a horrible way to run things.

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## Just the facts

If he gets into real-estate development I hope he is better at it then the people who were working for him are.  If he needs someone to help provide a vision I would like to apply.

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## Rover

Aubrey's vision in real estate was about building a community around the campus which would offer a lifestyle to attract the best and brightest to the company.  He wanted all the employees at all levels to be able to work and live in proximity to the company.  I don't believe real estate development is his real love, and it probably moves too slowly for his interest.  O&G is big, moves fast and offers huge upsides.  Real estate in OKC not so much in comparison.

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## Teo9969

> He's 53, and has a crapton of money. At this ponint, he could happily retire and never work again if he wanted. Since he's decided to get into the whole world of developement lately, i'd be more likely to see him leading a real estate firm for his special projects than anything. No, it won't rake in the cash like his other ventures, but his days of a waterfall of money coming in are over. 
> 
> However, he has plenty in terms of stock assets as well. He's not going to be running around in an old Chevy pickup folks, so don't start shedding tears. The way he's treated his employees over the years, it's sort of a just desert that he got tossed. All his project-based employment structure was a crock. He thought nothing of laying off (and did) several hundred people at a time because that project was done. What a horrible way to run things.


His days of making a waterfall of money are only over if he's done trying. 53 is not very old for a CEO like AKM. He could build another billion-dollar company before he's 65.

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## catch22

> His days of making a waterfall of money are only over if he's done trying. 53 is not very old for a CEO like AKM. He could build another billion-dollar company before he's 65.


Heck, Larry Nichols is 70 and is just now starting to hand over the keys at Devon. AKM has plenty of time to get another business started, and with his personality, it could be more to save face and make CHK look stupid for firing him. Remember he does have quite the ego.

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## PhiAlpha

> He's 53, and has a crapton of money. At this ponint, he could happily retire and never work again if he wanted. Since he's decided to get into the whole world of developement lately, i'd be more likely to see him leading a real estate firm for his special projects than anything. No, it won't rake in the cash like his other ventures, but his days of a waterfall of money coming in are over. 
> 
> However, he has plenty in terms of stock assets as well. He's not going to be running around in an old Chevy pickup folks, so don't start shedding tears. The way he's treated his employees over the years, it's sort of a just desert that he got tossed. All his project-based employment structure was a crock. He thought nothing of laying off (and did) several hundred people at a time because that project was done. What a horrible way to run things.


I think you are going way too far on this. If you're talking about something like hiring a bunch of contract landmen to run a leasing or title project and then endind the contract when the project is finished, you are being way over critical. That is standard practice in the oil and gas industry. You hire a bunch of contract workers when you need a bunch of people for a project but do not need them full time. At my company we have hundreds of contract landmen working on projects all the time, but there is a mutual understanding that they may get a call any day to pull the plug and stop all work immediately. That is the life of a contract oil and gas industry employee, it sucks, but they all know the risks. If they don't, they are kidding themselves. Contract employees are just that and when the contract is up, they are unemployed.

As far as full time employees of CHK, the vast majority of friends and family I know over there loved working for AKM. While not the best business manager and very demanding at times, they all say he provided the best working environment, salary, and benefits that they've ever experienced. In fact, I've heard that part of the philosophical differences between AKM and the board that led to him stepping down were related to how much they wanted to reduce the work force. the board wants to cutback on the staff and AKM did not. So you can blast him all day for poor business practices (especially with natural gas prices being so low) because those criticisms are definitely warranted, but its tough to knock how he treated his employees.

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## zookeeper

> I think you are going way too far on this. If you're talking about something like hiring a bunch of contract landmen to run a leasing or title project and then endind the contract when the project is finished, you are being way over critical. That is standard practice in the oil and gas industry. You hire a bunch of contract workers when you need a bunch of people for a project but do not need them full time. At my company we have hundreds of contract landmen working on projects all the time, but there is a mutual understanding that they may get a call any day to pull the plug and stop all work immediately. That is the life of a contract oil and gas industry employee, it sucks, but they all know the risks. If they don't, they are kidding themselves. Contract employees are just that and when the contract is up, they are unemployed.
> 
> As far as full time employees of CHK, the vast majority of friends and family I know over there loved working for AKM. While not the best business manager and very demanding at times, they all say he provided the best working environment, salary, and benefits that they've ever experienced. In fact, I've heard that part of the philosophical differences between AKM and the board that led to him stepping down were related to how much they wanted to reduce the work force. the board wants to cutback on the staff and AKM did not. So you can blast him all day for poor business practices (especially with natural gas prices being so low) because those criticisms are definitely warranted, but its tough to knock how he treated his employees.


Do you read the newspapers or watch TV? This has to do with stuff that's got the company under SEC investigation and Aubrey McClendon is personally being investigated for criminal violations, including some potentially very serious crimes, and it has nothing to do with the company wanting to lay off more people than McClendon believes they should. 

Also, it's really very easy to treat your employees well when you're doing it as CEO of a public company with shareholder's money. It can make you very popular, but in the long run was it best for those employees?  You can't separate the bad business practices from the way he treated the employees, one fed the other. My guess is in 6 months or so many of those same employees would probably argue they would have been better off had he been more responsible.

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## PhiAlpha

> Do you read the newspapers or watch TV? This has to do with stuff that's got the company under SEC investigation and Aubrey McClendon is personally being investigated for criminal violations, including some potentially very serious crimes, and it has nothing to do with the company wanting to lay off more people than McClendon believes they should. 
> 
> Also, it's really very easy to treat your employees well when you're doing it as CEO of a public company with shareholder's money. It can make you very popular, but in the long run was it best for those employees?  You can't separate the bad business practices from the way he treated the employees, one fed the other. My guess is in 6 months or so many of those same employees would probably argue they would have been better off had he been more responsible.


Yes, I'm aware of all of that and I'm very aware of what has been going on there for the last few years from a variety of sources inside the company. If it was just everything you mentioned, he would've been gone 7 months ago when the board was shuffled. AKM didn't want to inact many of the changes the new board suggested and that was the last straw for both parties. Nothing much is going to come of all the crap reported in the media, you can think what you want but don't believe everything you read or see on TV. It turned into a smear campaign then a criminal investigation. AKM's undoing had far more to do with the drop in natural gas prices, betting the company on one comodity, high debt, and the 2008 margin call then anything reported by Reuters. If natural gas hadn't dropped below $7, CHK and AKM wouldn't be plagued by most of the issues facing them today.

In the scheme of things, most of the improvements on campus were a fraction of the cost of the company's drilling budget and comparatively don't cost that much to maintain. Again, the reason for CHK's issues are low commodity prices, not the upkeep of 2 restaurants and a gym. Many of employees that you say would've been better off had he been more responsible probably wouldn't have been employed in the first place if CHK was being run more responsibly. Devon has near the same asset base and less than half the employees as do many other companies. At least many of them had the benefit of employment for 5-10 years or howeve long they were there.

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## bombermwc

PhiAlpha - Actually, i'm talking about HQ people. He just laid off 125 people in downtown OKC ovenight with no notice to them. The folks that are on-campus fall under the same category. They are known for using people in their "probation" period and tossing them out...basically treating them as temps. I've also been told by people that work there, that they really abuse you and your time as well....expecting you to do 1.5 or 2 people's worth of work on a daily basis, and not be compensated for it. If they simply wouldn't fire people so often, they might get somewhere in that manpower shortage....unless they're just trying to screw people over. I've had friends and family both work there in various areas. Given the stores I've heard, the all-awesome world of CHK seems to be a myth.

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## Rover

I am sure this is why Fortune/CNN Money every year names them one of the top 100 companies to work for (#18 last year).  

I think that sometimes many here in OK are unaware/ignorant of the effort it takes to succeed at top companies in most highly competitive companies.  Most are not 40 hr per week jobs.  You can't have all the perks and go home at 5. And security only comes after proven results and always subject to business levels.  Many industries fluctuate heavily by projects and work levels.

When you get that $150,000 a yr job that is no pressure, full of perks, fun, and secure as long as you want it.....stay there, because there aren't that many. Lol

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## Just the facts

Sadly, this is what happens when you become beholden to private equity firms and fund management companies.  They only care about two things, money and how they can get more of it.  In a world of nano-second trading Wall Street increasing couldn’t care less about 6 month plans, let alone 5, 10, or 20 year plans.  The money literally has to be made this second.  Up to 70% of all trading is now high frequency trading.  Your employee sees on-site daycare while the private equity guy sees $10 that could have been his, and guess who gets to decide now – that’s right – the private equity guy and guess which option he is increasingly choosing.

Think I am wrong, walk into any company in America and in the lobby you will likely see a monitor with the company's stock price on display which serves as a reminder why you 'really' came to work that day.

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## HangryHippo

JTF, I think there's more than a little hyperbole in your point, but I'm increasingly inclined to agree with the basic premise.  It's all becoming about the immediate dollar.  What a shame.

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## Rover

Making money IS the objective of business and capitalism.  But, treating your people right is a great way to do that.  It is not one OR the other.  Providing a high quality environment draws talented people who make you money.  

Aubrey has mad mistakes, but providing a good environment to work n was not one of them ... Even if there is pressure to perform.

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## Urbanized

Uh...to those who think he is done...Aubrey started Chesapeake with Tom Ward a little over twenty years ago with a mere $50,000 and turned it into a Fortune 500 during that time. Now various reports put his personal net worth at more than a billion dollars, personal wealth crises notwithstanding. He can likely afford to personally fund a startup or acquire an existing firm for hundreds of millions of dollars if he so chooses.

But he won't have to, because don't kid yourself; investors will be LINING UP to be a part of his next venture, despite the recent controversies. In 2011, _Forbes_ named him to their "20-20 Club," indicating he was one of only *EIGHT* CEOs who had been with their company 20 years or more AND returned at least 20% to investors over that period. Aubrey made a LOT of people OTHER than Aubrey a LOT of money.

He's a serial entrepreneur, a wildcatter, a risk-taker, and guys like that don't just slink off quietly, especially when they have a ton of money and a ton of people willing to spend money with them.

Besides, the perfect example of how quickly he could pull things together again is no further away than his former partner. Ward bought Sandridge (ne Riata) within months of leaving CHK in 2006. IIRC, the company had one or two hundred employees if that. They went public in 2007 and now are supposed to have around 2K employees. It wouldn't take long for Aubrey to do something similar if he chooses to. And he almost certainly will choose to. Guys like him don't retire at 53.

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## Thundercitizen

> Uh...to those who think he is done...Aubrey started Chesapeake with Tom Ward a little over twenty years ago with a mere $50,000 and turned it into a Fortune 500 during that time. Now various reports put his personal net worth at more than a billion dollars, personal wealth crises notwithstanding. He can likely afford to personally fund a startup or acquire an existing firm for hundreds of millions of dollars if he so chooses.
> 
> But he won't have to, because don't kid yourself; investors will be LINING UP to be a part of his next venture, despite the recent controversies. In 2011, _Forbes_ named him to their "20-20 Club," indicating he was one of only *EIGHT* CEOs who had been with their company 20 years or more AND returned at least 20% to investors over that period. Aubrey made a LOT of people OTHER than Aubrey a LOT of money.
> 
> He's a serial entrepreneur, a wildcatter, a risk-taker, and guys like that don't just slink off quietly, especially when they have a ton of money and a ton of people willing to spend money with them.
> 
> Besides, the perfect example of how quickly he could pull things together again is no further away than his former partner. Ward bought Sandridge (ne Riata) within months of leaving CHK in 2006. IIRC, the company had one or two hundred employees if that. They went public in 2007 and now are supposed to have around 2K employees. It wouldn't take long for Aubrey to do something similar if he chooses to. And he almost certainly will choose to. Guys like him don't retire at 53.


 A very concise, well-stated case for Aubrey's return to the industry's limelight.

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## bombermwc

Funny thing Rover, i dont feel like the goal of my job should be for me to get more money into the hands of the investors. I don't feel like i should be married more to the job than my family. I know this sounds off the fall and all, but i feel like a normal 8-5 job should be the range of any employee that wants it, and that once you go home, the job should stay there. 

FYI - most of those jobs i'm talking about are far from 150K a year too. We're talking <50...the workhorse force of any company, and also the most abused.

The company I work for converted from privately held, to equity firm several years ago. That's the day we turned from being employee-centric, to investor-centric as well. Screws to the employee in favor of another dime in their pocket. And screws to all of us who do our job to the best of our ability simply because that's what you're supposed to do. And shame on us for expecting to be treated fairly for that effort.

CHK is another example of how that works. It's not some magical amazing place to work. Don't let PR rankings fool you. It's a job like any other that eats you for lunch. Name any other energy company in OKC and you'll find happier (and longer tenured) employees there. Heck, Midwest Regional Hospital advertises those "top 5% hospitals" thing all the time, but you dont think anyone here buy it do you?

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## CitySlickR

I am all for that wildcatter AKM but in his next venture(s) he should not go public so he can run it like he has tried to run the public CHK.  Hopefully he has enough family money to do just that.  Go AKM !  His trickle down has been good for OKC.

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## Rover

So, if you are so unhappy, quit your job and go start your own company.  Put your philosophy into practice.  Take the same risk.  More power to you.

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## Just the facts

A little off topic but Michael Dell is taking Dell private again.  Maybe he is tired of investors running his company as well.

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## BoulderSooner

> A little off topic but Michael Dell is taking Dell private again.  Maybe he is tired of investors running his company as well.


he is a tiny part of taking it private

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## Just the facts

> he is a tiny part of taking it private


He is putting more money than anyone as part of the deal, about $3 billion of his own money.

Now back to AM.  I doubt he ever runs a public company again.  Why answer to a bunch of greedy pencil pushers if you don't have to?

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## HangryHippo

> So, if you are so unhappy, quit your job and go start your own company.  Put your philosophy into practice.  Take the same risk.  More power to you.


Yeah, because that would be so easy to do for a lot of people that just want to be treated fairly by their employer in lieu of starting the next Fortune 500 company.  And damn you bomber for wanting to be treated fairly!

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## PhiAlpha

> Funny thing Rover, i dont feel like the goal of my job should be for me to get more money into the hands of the investors. I don't feel like i should be married more to the job than my family. I know this sounds off the fall and all, but i feel like a normal 8-5 job should be the range of any employee that wants it, and that once you go home, the job should stay there. 
> 
> FYI - most of those jobs i'm talking about are far from 150K a year too. We're talking <50...the workhorse force of any company, and also the most abused.
> 
> The company I work for converted from privately held, to equity firm several years ago. That's the day we turned from being employee-centric, to investor-centric as well. Screws to the employee in favor of another dime in their pocket. And screws to all of us who do our job to the best of our ability simply because that's what you're supposed to do. And shame on us for expecting to be treated fairly for that effort.
> 
> CHK is another example of how that works. It's not some magical amazing place to work. Don't let PR rankings fool you. It's a job like any other that eats you for lunch. Name any other energy company in OKC and you'llw find happier (and longer tenured) employees there. Heck, Midwest Regional Hospital advertises those "top 5% hospitals" thing all the time, but you dont think anyone here buy it do you?





> Funny thing Rover, i dont feel like the goal of my job should be for me to get more money into the hands of the investors. I don't feel like i should be married more to the job than my family. I know this sounds off the fall and all, but i feel like a normal 8-5 job should be the range of any employee that wants it, and that once you go home, the job should stay there.*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> FYI - most of those jobs i'm talking about are far from 150K a year too. We're talking <50...the workhorse force of any company, and also the most abused.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Again my friends and family, probably 10-20 people, have worked their for 5-10 years which is a long time in the energy industry, and they all say that CHK is the best place they've ever worked as far as work environment. the majority of them work 8-5 and do not feel over worked at all. I am more overworked at my company than they are, but I'm young and enjoy it so I dont mind. As companies grow, sometimes promotions and other things get political and that is the biggest complaint I've heard out of everyone. That and in some cases, especially with current NG prices, too many employees, not enough work to go around. I don't know from what departments or fields your contacts work in but with a 13,000 employee company, I'm sure opinions vary drastically from person to person and between departments. Having said that, your sentiments do not seem to be shared by the majority of those who work there.

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## dankrutka

> Yeah, because that would be so easy to do for a lot of people that just want to be treated fairly by their employer in lieu of starting the next Fortune 500 company.  And damn you bomber for wanting to be treated fairly!


Seroiusly. What a ridiculous notion. Not everyone grows up in a meg-rich family. It's easy to take chances when failing means still being rich.

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## Rover

13000 people have had high quality high paying jobs with great benefits because of AM and still people on here are still angry.  Amazing.  Guess certain people just hate enterprise and capitalism.

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## dankrutka

> 13000 people have had high quality high paying jobs with great benefits because of AM and still people on here are still angry.  Amazing.  Guess certain people just hate enterprise and capitalism.


Rover - the defender of rich people if anyone ever says they're not perfect! You're doing noble work, Rover! God speed.

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## Rover

Just not a hater of rich....or poor.  I like enterprise that builds businesses that give good people very good jobs.  I do believe in capitalism and do not begrudge return on investments.  I do think it takes hard work to succeed.  I do think you don't get the best jobs by working only 9-5.  

Of all the things that were/are a problem at Chesapeake, I don't believe their treatment of their employees was a negative.  To read on here about the anger some people have over companies expecting their employees to work hard and be highly productive is surprising.  Great jobs rarely are cushy.  

There will be cutbacks at Chesapeake.  There will be layoffs.  The alternative would be sale or bankruptcy.  What benefits the employees most?

BTW, investors in Chesapeake over the past few years lost a huge part of their investment as stock lost value, they didn't harvest wealth off the back of the employees.  They took risk and lost while 13000 have enjoyed some of the best jobs in the industry.

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## Just the facts

Investors losing money?  Cry me a river.  The investment community has been ripping off this country for far too long.  They exist because they get pre-tax dollars to invest and/or only pay a 15% tax on their gains - and get to write off their losses.  Freaking freeloaders.  I'll bet they hate government spending too, unless of course they are investing their tax free money in a company that contracts with the government or gets a subsidy from them.

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## Bellaboo

> Investors losing money?  Cry me a river.  The investment community has been ripping off this country for far too long.  They exist because they get pre-tax dollars to invest and/or only pay a 15% tax on their gains - and get to write of their losses.  Freaking freeloaders.  I'll bet they hate government spending too, unless of course they are investing their tax free money in a company that contracts with the government or gets a subsidy from them.


Wrong, investors are risk takers. No risk, very little reward, besides, that 15% they pay on return is better than no pay at all.
There is no 'freeloading' when you put it on the line.

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## Just the facts

Never mind - we are straying away from AM.

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## Rover

> Investors losing money?  Cry me a river.  The investment community has been ripping off this country for far too long.  They exist because they get pre-tax dollars to invest and/or only pay a 15% tax on their gains - and get to write off their losses.  Freaking freeloaders.  I'll bet they hate government spending too, unless of course they are investing their tax free money in a company that contracts with the government or gets a subsidy from them.


As to understanding the economy or business or capitalistic principals, you have lost any little credibility you had. If you have any investable capital, I assume you'd be okay when it is lost or winds up worth half of what it was.  Profit or safety is a concept you don't value, it appears. 

For people who want a growing, thriving community, the anti business sentiment of some is quite amazing and totally naive.

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## bombermwc

I believe what we would like to see, is a world where the employee is treating fairly and not screwed over to give an investor more money. Whether that's CHK or any other company.

An investor takes risk, but it's minimal. If they start seeing their income drop on an investment, they skip town and leave the employees to pick up the pieces. If they are doing well, they want more. So saying they are at "risk", nah. When you throw a million dollars in, but have 2 billion at home, that's not risk. That's a penny slot. And who's back do you think those millions were made on?

Perspective.

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## HangryHippo

> As to understanding the economy or business or capitalistic principals, you have lost any little credibility you had. If you have any investable capital, I assume you'd be okay when it is lost or winds up worth half of what it was.  Profit or safety is a concept you don't value, it appears. 
> 
> For people who want a growing, thriving community, the anti business sentiment of some is quite amazing and totally naive.


You need some perspective.  Posters here are anti-business merely because we don't want to see some investor with millions or billions to burn leave us high and dry at the first whiff of smaller returns or we don't to be at the whim of an employer that plays money games but doesn't want to suffer the consequences when they lose?  Please.  Not all of us are driven by the lust of higher and higher profits.

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## Just the facts

You have defined the limits of the debate pretty well Rover.  Unless I are for the gang rape of corporate America by the investment community then I am not a capitalist.  Van Jones and Saul Alinksky couldn't have defined Capitalism better themselves.

Alas if capitalism now means getting as much money as you can at all human and environmental cost maybe I am not a capitalist after all.

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## metro

> As to understanding the economy or business or capitalistic principals, you have lost any little credibility you had. If you have any investable capital, I assume you'd be okay when it is lost or winds up worth half of what it was.  Profit or safety is a concept you don't value, it appears. 
> 
> For people who want a growing, thriving community, the anti business sentiment of some is quite amazing and totally naive.


Well said.

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## Lafferty Daniel

Wow. Some of you sure throw in completely off topic points so that you can try and "win" the argument. This debate started with someone saying CHK employees are treated unfairly. And this is such a ridiculous statement. What's unfair about being an employee at CHK? The good pay? The fact that CHK will match up to 15% of your 401K? The free gym, basketball courts, etc.? The free tickets to Thunder games, concerts, etc? Working in Class A office space? The free shares of stock you get every six months? All of the corporate events/celebrations they put on for free? And I'm sure there are dozens and dozens of other perks I don't know about or can't think of right now. You have to be lying to yourself if you think working in an office with 10 people and getting none of the above mentioned perks is better than working at CHK.

Sorry, but I have no sympathy for someone saying they are "overworked". Why are they overworked? Because they might have to work 45 hours a week rather than the standard 40? Boo hoo. That's life. That's called the real world. You want to get somewhere in life, you have to work hard. You have to put in a little extra time at the office every now and then. 

The only thing that should be criticized at CHK is the fact that SOMETIMES promotions are political rather than who actually deserves it. But I'm sure that is the case for many companies around the world, not just at CHK.

----------


## Just the facts

> Wow. Some of you sure throw in completely off topic points so that you can try and "win" the argument. This debate started with someone saying CHK employees are treated unfairly. And this is such a ridiculous statement. What's unfair about being an employee at CHK? The good pay? The fact that CHK will match up to 15% of your 401K? The free gym, basketball courts, etc.? The free tickets to Thunder games, concerts, etc? Working in Class A office space? The free shares of stock you get every six months? All of the corporate events/celebrations they put on for free? And I'm sure there are dozens and dozens of other perks I don't know about or can't think of right now. You have to be lying to yourself if you think working in an office with 10 people and getting none of the above mentioned perks is better than working at CHK.


This is the whole subject of the debate.  AM did not covet every nickle he could get his hands on.  He shared his wealth with many of his employees and the community at large - sometimes to a fault.  What is his reward from the investment community for being so open with the corporate treasury?  Answer, the door.  Queue defense of the investment community in 3...2...1.

Hopefully next time he won't have to run a public company so he can operate it as he sees fit.

----------


## Rover

> You have defined the limits of the debate pretty well Rover.  Unless I are for the gang rape of corporate America by the investment community then I am not a capitalist.  Van Jones and Saul Alinksky couldn't have defined Capitalism better themselves.
> 
> Alas if capitalism now means getting as much money as you can at all human and environmental cost maybe I am not a capitalist after all.


I think you have no concept of capitalism, just hysterics, gross generalization and "power to the people" isms.  You act like trying to bring Chesapeake back from the brink is greed.  You think the growth and what it has contributed to OKC is nothing.  You seem to hate all successful people and despise profit as a motive.  

Chesapeake has made MANY people in this city wealthy by buying up low value property at exaggerated prices.  They have employed 1000s of people for many years paying great wages and giving them many amenities which they appreciated.  They made landowners wealthy by paying big $ to royalty owners, many of whom were barely making it landowners.  They created construction jobs, transportation jobs, restaurant jobs, and on, and on and on.  In the meantime, their stock has continuously gone down while investors lost billions of $.  The growth came due to leverage and now it is time to pay the piper.

If it is AM you are jealous of, so be it.  But through his "greed" he has significantly helped this city and thousands of people.  So, tell me about your significant contributions to the betterment of this community and its people.  How many do you employ directly or indirectly?

----------


## OKCTalker

Hijack.

----------


## Just the facts

Rover - once again, you have either misread something I wrote or confused me with someone else.  Now, 'power to the humans' and all that jazz.

http://www.okctalk.com/other-urban-d...tml#post616193

----------


## HangryHippo

> Wow. Some of you sure throw in completely off topic points so that you can try and "win" the argument. This debate started with someone saying CHK employees are treated unfairly. And this is such a ridiculous statement. What's unfair about being an employee at CHK? The good pay? The fact that CHK will match up to 15% of your 401K? The free gym, basketball courts, etc.? The free tickets to Thunder games, concerts, etc? Working in Class A office space? The free shares of stock you get every six months? All of the corporate events/celebrations they put on for free? And I'm sure there are dozens and dozens of other perks I don't know about or can't think of right now. You have to be lying to yourself if you think working in an office with 10 people and getting none of the above mentioned perks is better than working at CHK.
> 
> Sorry, but I have no sympathy for someone saying they are "overworked". Why are they overworked? Because they might have to work 45 hours a week rather than the standard 40? Boo hoo. That's life. That's called the real world. You want to get somewhere in life, you have to work hard. You have to put in a little extra time at the office every now and then. 
> 
> The only thing that should be criticized at CHK is the fact that SOMETIMES promotions are political rather than who actually deserves it. But I'm sure that is the case for many companies around the world, not just at CHK.


Wow, yes, this whole thing is about an extra 5 hours a work week.  You're absolutely right.

----------


## RadicalModerate

Having just--well, in reality, about three hours ago--made a minor detour off of Western, on the way to pay my mortgage payment, I would suggest that Aubrey might want to get on down to his slice of MonopolyHotelBurg and check the status of Construction Standards before O.S.H.A. (etc. incl. EPA) is--or aren't--all up his bee-hind....

On the other hand, I have been wrong before.

(i've never seen such meaningless clutter . . .
cranes: cool . . . roadways: suck . . . workers: lounging . . . wooden props under poured concrete passing as scaffolds?: you be the judge. of course it is a long bicycle ride from Jacksonville, FLA, so . . . =)

[trival sidebar: in the oil business, "tour" is pronounced "tower"]

----------


## Lafferty Daniel

> This is the whole subject of the debate.  AM did not covet every nickle he could get his hands on.  He shared his wealth with many of his employees and the community at large - sometimes to a fault.  What is his reward from the investment community for being so open with the corporate treasury?  Answer, the door.  Queue defense of the investment community in 3...2...1.
> 
> Hopefully next time he won't have to run a public company so he can operate it as he sees fit.


This is not the whole subject of the debate. The reason he was shown the door was not because of employee benefits. It was his own personal greed that was a big part of it (having CHK buy his own personal map collection for $12 million, etc.)

I guess I should have singled out Bomber when making my post. I was responding to his "AKM has treated his employees poorly" comment. That wasn't the direct quote. I paraphrased.

----------


## Lafferty Daniel

> Wow, yes, this whole thing is about an extra 5 hours a work week.  You're absolutely right.


Excellent contribution.

----------


## Snowman

> This is not the whole subject of the debate. The reason he was shown the door was not because of employee benefits. It was his own personal greed that was a big part of it (having CHK buy his own personal map collection for $12 million, etc.)
> 
> I guess I should have singled out Bomber when making my post. I was responding to his "AKM has treated his employees poorly" comment. That wasn't the direct quote. I paraphrased.


I expect it had more to do with the gamble he made which lead to the margin call on him, that hurt their shares value, or not positioning the company better for the nosedive in natural gas price. The maps and other grievances were just something they had a better chance with sticking to him.

----------


## zookeeper

> I expect it had more to do with the gamble he made which lead to the margin call on him, that hurt their shares value, or not positioning the company better for the nosedive in natural gas price. The maps and other grievances were just something they had a better chance with sticking to him.


No, it didn't even have anything to do with the price of gas. That's what McClendon wants you to think of course. It was sweetheart deals made with so many that they're apparently having a hard time sorting out all the shell games to cover up his personal profit from the use of his public company. Reuters and others did major digging and uncovered what turned into everything many suspected. He's now still under criminal investigation personally, they really don't want to talk about that around here, and the company itself still has many legal battles to fight.

Those who come here and defend McClendon blow me away. I mentioned that it's easy to treat your employees well when you're doing it with OPM (other people's money) and that response is what started people claiming him as their hero and saying he didn't have to do all he did for his employees. My point and I've seen others make the same argument is that using OPM he was in a position to solidify a lot of devotion with great benefits and all that. But in the end it was not the responsible thing to do and the army of employees loaded with goodies was part of the problem, not really something to be commended. People around here are too easy on this guy who if he hadn't been stopped when he was could really have sunk Oklahoma City. As it is maybe it's salvageable, but it's in spite of McClendon.

----------


## Snowman

> No, it didn't even have anything to do with the price of gas. That's what McClendon wants you to think of course. It was sweetheart deals made with so many that they're apparently having a hard time sorting out all the shell games to cover up his personal profit from the use of his public company. Reuters and others did major digging and uncovered what turned into everything many suspected. He's now still under criminal investigation personally, they really don't want to talk about that around here, and the company itself still has many legal battles to fight.
> 
> Those who come here and defend McClendon blow me away. I mentioned that it's easy to treat your employees well when you're doing it with OPM (other people's money) and that response is what started people claiming him as their hero and saying he didn't have to do all he did for his employees. My point and I've seen others make the same argument is that using OPM he was in a position to solidify a lot of devotion with great benefits and all that. But in the end it was not the responsible thing to do and the army of employees loaded with goodies was part of the problem, not really something to be commended. People around here are too easy on this guy who if he hadn't been stopped when he was could really have sunk Oklahoma City. As it is maybe it's salvageable, but it's in spite of McClendon.


I could care less about defending him, they had no problem ignoring what was going on as long as the price was going higher, had it kept that pace they would have likely continued giving the company a free pass.

----------


## RadicalModerate

Aubrey, the person, has almost certainly never "coveted" anything in his life:
Apparently, he has never had "to do without" and therefore "covetousness" can't possibly enter into his scheme of things/productive paradigm. 
Unfortunately, the B-Side of that is a "private skool" education doesn't have even an elective course to learn that lesson.

I hope that, when the dust settles and the chips fall where they may, that Mr. McClendon will turn his sights and talents toward . . .
 oh . . . i dunno . . . restoring The Olde Railroad Junction of Britton, OK . . . =)

----------


## zookeeper

> I could care less about defending him, they had no problem ignoring what was going on as long as the price was going higher, had it kept that pace they would have likely continued giving the company a free pass.


Sorry Snowman I really wasn't thinking of you when I wrote that expect the part you said about gas prices was my jumping off point I guess. You're not one of the ones I was thinking about.

----------


## CitySlickR

Henry Ford got fed up with his investors and took it private.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> No, it didn't even have anything to do with the price of gas. That's what McClendon wants you to think of course. It was sweetheart deals made with so many that they're apparently having a hard time sorting out all the shell games to cover up his personal profit from the use of his public company. Reuters and others did major digging and uncovered what turned into everything many suspected. He's now still under criminal investigation personally, they really don't want to talk about that around here, and the company itself still has many legal battles to fight.
> 
> Those who come here and defend McClendon blow me away. I mentioned that it's easy to treat your employees well when you're doing it with OPM (other people's money) and that response is what started people claiming him as their hero and saying he didn't have to do all he did for his employees. My point and I've seen others make the same argument is that using OPM he was in a position to solidify a lot of devotion with great benefits and all that. But in the end it was not the responsible thing to do and the army of employees loaded with goodies was part of the problem, not really something to be commended. People around here are too easy on this guy who if he hadn't been stopped when he was could really have sunk Oklahoma City. As it is maybe it's salvageable, but it's in spite of McClendon.


You are incorrect. Again I'm sure all of the media crap was the nail in the coffin, but it all started with the margin call reducing his stake in the company, low commodity prices, their focus on one commodity, and failing to mitigate the risk by hedging. Nothing more will come of the media witch hunt. Your lack knowledge of the situation and the oil and gas industry as a whole makes any further argument pointless on my part.

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## Rover

While it was most likely time for AM to turn over the leadership of the company, I have little sympathy for the larger investors who forced him out.  They are extremely sophisticated and knowledgeable investors who had to know EXACTLY what AM was involved in and what the operating philosophy was.  They invested because AM had created a fast track to growing assets through extreme leverage.  They waited and pounced once they thought that tactic was maximized and extreme growth was no longer possible at the same rate.  With the asset sales occurring for cash flow, I believe they wanted more of a say in what assets were retained and what assets were to be sold.  Their interest is in ASSETS, not in an ongoing company.  They are sharks who were waiting for blood in the water.  When AM nicked himself shaving and bled, they were right on top of it.  But make no mistake, they invested with full knowledge and are using tactics that have been financially rewarding for them in the past.  Unfortunately, AM's "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" approach played right into their hands...that and he was a victim of his genius...so successful at getting gas out of the ground he drove down prices.

----------


## Just the facts

Hmmm, I guess I am not the only person who thinks this way.

SandRidge shareholder vote could have broader implications for Oklahoma City | News OK




> Tulsa money manager Jake Dollarhide said the effort is driven by out-of-state investors focused only on the stock price.
> 
> “These big industry players don't care about any effect on Oklahoma City or Tulsa,” said Dollarhide, CEO of Tulsa-based Longbow Asset Management Co., which owns SandRidge Stock.
> 
> “They don't care about contributions to the community or feeding the hungry here. This is all to help their returns. They want to maximize the value for their clients. They want to make sure they can feed their families and that they can worry about feeding the hungry and supporting the arts community in their towns.”

----------


## Pete

> While it was most likely time for AM to turn over the leadership of the company, I have little sympathy for the larger investors who forced him out.  They are extremely sophisticated and knowledgeable investors who had to know EXACTLY what AM was involved in and what the operating philosophy was.  They invested because AM had created a fast track to growing assets through extreme leverage.  They waited and pounced once they thought that tactic was maximized and extreme growth was no longer possible at the same rate.  With the asset sales occurring for cash flow, I believe they wanted more of a say in what assets were retained and what assets were to be sold.  Their interest is in ASSETS, not in an ongoing company.  They are sharks who were waiting for blood in the water.  When AM nicked himself shaving and bled, they were right on top of it.  But make no mistake, they invested with full knowledge and are using tactics that have been financially rewarding for them in the past.  Unfortunately, AM's "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" approach played right into their hands...that and he was a victim of his genius...so successful at getting gas out of the ground he drove down prices.


A lot of the big investors are activists who invest specifically because they believe the management is off course but there are some sound underlying assets.

Of course they are looking to turn a profit which is the only motivation for getting involved in the first place.

This is the system we have and the role shareholders play in helping to shape corporate direction is a very big part of it.

----------


## Just the facts

> This is the system we have and the role shareholders play in helping to shape corporate direction is a very big part of it.


The big question is, is it sustainable?  The story on Sandridge I linked to above indicates that this is a rapidly growing trend but generally this type of activity can only happen once, after the company is sold off in pieces it can't be done again and there are only so many public companies.  I think it will have a chilling effect on companies considering going public and it is already resulting in companies going private again.

Personally, I am 100% in favor of companies remaining private or returning to private control.  I think it is one of the best thing that can happen to America.

----------


## Rover

Public capital investment has been a huge part of distributing wealth resulting from American prosperity. Having companies owned by a few VERY wealthy individuals without other shareholders to hold them in check is not the answer.  Having the capital to grow that is provided by sales of shares to the public is a key component to the incredible growth of this country and why it has been a world leader in enterprise.  It surprises me that you want to take the participation of the little people out of their hands.  

The problem is that too many of the smaller shareholders fail to understand or keep up with the issues because they don't take their investor's responsibilities seriously.  If the smaller Chesapeake shareholders actually banded together they would be way more powerful than Icon and any fund investor is now.  Problem is, they don't organize and they don't try to enforce good management..they are way too passive and too lazy to be truly informed.  They keep signing their proxies over to management to vote for them.  Then they act surprised when things are out of control and these minority investors come in and take the company's future away.

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## onthestrip

> Hmmm, I guess I am not the only person who thinks this way.
> 
> SandRidge shareholder vote could have broader implications for Oklahoma City | News OK


Most fellow Oklahomans do agree with this its just that when the CEO begins to loot the company for personal gain then I cant say that TPG doesnt have a good argument. Because if you look at the facts, Ward has taken a whole bunch from Sandridge in some shady ways yet has produced nothing. In fact hes lost money for shareholders over 6 years.

----------


## Just the facts

Well, keep in mind that the activist investors did not buy at the peak of the price nor duirng the IPO.  They bought when prices were low because they saw they can sell the companies off in parts and make a quick dollar.  That isn't good for the company, the long-term investors, the employees, not the communities where these companies do business, but it is great for the uber rich on Wall Street who fund these wealth management companies.  Do you ever wonder who is invested in places like TPG-Axon Capital?  I assure you it isn't Ma and Pa Kettle.

TPG-Axon Capital Management, L.P.: Private Company Information - Businessweek




> TPG-Axon Capital Management, LP (TAC) is a privately owned hedge fund sponsor. The firm provides its services to high net worth individuals, pension funds, and banking institutions.


They produce nothing.  The only destory long-term wealth generation for short term gains for a select few wealthy enough to buy into it.  They are a cancer on the system.  If this practice is the new system (and I think it is) then the whole thing is doomed to failure.  Our country was founded on local economies but increasingly control of the economy is being placed in a concentrated pocket of people in NYC.

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## onthestrip

> Well, keep in mind that the activist investors did not buy at the peak of the price nor duirng the IPO.  They bought when prices were low because they saw they can sell the companies off in parts and make a quick dollar.  That isn't good for the company, the long-term investors, the employees, not the communities where these companies do business, but it is great for the uber rich on Wall Street who fund these wealth management companies.  Do you ever wonder who is invested in places like TPG-Axon Capital?  I assure you it isn't Ma and Pa Kettle.
> 
> TPG-Axon Capital Management, L.P.: Private Company Information - Businessweek
> 
> 
> 
> They produce nothing.  The only destory long-term wealth generation for short term gains for a select few wealthy enough to buy into it.  *They are a cancer on the system.*  If this practice is the new system (and I think it is) then the whole thing is doomed to failure.  Our country was founded on local economies but increasingly control of the economy is being placed in a concentrated pocket of people in NYC.


You know what also is a cancer on the system? A greedy CEO that has stacked his board with yes-men that get paid very well to say yes.

Im not saying they have the city's or Sandridge's best interests at heart but Tom Ward is bringing this all on himself.

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## Just the facts

> You know what also is a cancer on the system? A greedy CEO that has stacked his board with yes-men that get paid very well to say yes.
> 
> Im not saying they have the city's or Sandridge's best interests at heart but Tom Ward is bringing this all on himself.


Maybe, but if anyone is going to profit from companies in Oklahoma I would just as soon they be people that live in Oklahoma.

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## Rover

> Maybe, but if anyone is going to profit from companies in Oklahoma I would just as soon they be people that live in Oklahoma.


So, HOW a company's leadership acts and it ethics are no matter as long as people you favor are benefitted?  That is your sense of ethics?  Plundering small investors who invested in good faith and their assets being directed for personal use is okay with you if the loot is spent in OKC?  That's an odd sense of how business and society should work.

----------


## Just the facts

> So, HOW a company's leadership acts and it ethics are no matter as long as people you favor are benefitted?  That is your sense of ethics?  Plundering small investors who invested in good faith and their assets being directed for personal use is okay with you if the loot is spent in OKC?  That's an odd sense of how business and society should work.


Who are you talking about doing the plundering, the CEO or the uber-rich hedge fund managers?  Do you ever wonder where a rich investor actually gets the money from?

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## Rover

> Who are you talking about doing the plundering, the CEO or the uber-rich hedge fund managers?  Do you ever wonder where a rich investor actually gets the money from?


I know you don't think this way, but most rich investors get there by making smart investments in well run companies.  They supply needed capital and liquidity in the capital markets.  They fuel growth that puts millions of people to work.  It is basic.  Many rich investors got there by studying capital markets, management, markets, economics, world trade patterns, law, etc.

----------


## metro

> Who are you talking about doing the plundering, the CEO or the uber-rich hedge fund managers?  Do you ever wonder where a rich investor actually gets the money from?


when did you become a liberal? You're posts have taken a 180 as of late.

----------


## Just the facts

> when did you become a liberal? You're posts have taken a 180 as of late.


LOL - I am not a liberal by any stretch of the imagination.  I am a student of the Austrian School of Economics.  The problem is Wall Street has become a "most favored industry" be decree from Washington DC.  Why should Wall Street get preferential treatment when their practitioners produce nothing?  I say let Wall Street compete in the market place for dollars like every other industry.  Americans shouldnt be coerced into handing over billions of dollars every week so Wall Street hedge fund managers can rape and pillage local companies just so they can make a quick profit.  Greed IS NOT capitalism.

Now I am very happy to say that more and more people are figuring this out, and many of them have the resources to do something about it.  Just this week the founder of Barnes and Noble said the activist investors have destroyed his company so he is looking to take it private again.  The same thing is happening with Best Buy and as mentioned before - Dell.  I say good.  Put people back in charge that have a long-term vision for growth and sustainability instead of people who trade stocks in nano-seconds.

Three's a Trend: Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Dell Founders Look to Take Companies Private - DailyFinance




> It isn't easy running a public company. You need to please investors every three months. You have to be transparent about your operations. Analysts pry into every detail of your operation during quarterly earnings calls
> 
> Privatization makes long-term planning easier. There's no longer the need to manage the company so it hits a certain sales or profit number every quarter. A company is freer to take chances -- and that's very important as Dell, Best Buy, and Barnes & Noble try to stage turnarounds.

----------


## Rover

I love these death bed conversions by these founders who after years of reaping the benefit of the capital market and making millions, if not billions, now 
"see the light" and want to go private.  The question is, would they ever have grown without the benefit of the liquid capital markets provided by our financial system? In most cases, NO.  Capital provided by institutions aggregating the investment interests of many individuals provide capital in the amounts necessary for significant growth.  

Broad brush assertions about investors and institutions and labeling them all as greed mongers shows a very shallow understanding of economics.  Greed is greed.  There are greedy individuals, greedy officers of institutions, greedy politicians, greedy neighbors, greedy kids.

By the way, when Dell goes "private", it just means that individual shareholders who suffered by the bad decisions managing Dell (almost to the point of bankruptcy) will now be taken out in favor of Dell and his financial allies, including Microsoft and a group of institutional investors and banks.  So much for "private".  They will take undervalued assets away from the shareholders and capitalize on it for their "private" gains.  I am not sure this is the model for great capitalism.

----------


## Dubya61

> By the way, when Dell goes "private", it just means that individual shareholders who suffered by the bad decisions managing Dell (almost to the point of bankruptcy) will now be taken out in favor of Dell and his financial allies, including Microsoft and a group of institutional investors and banks.  So much for "private".  They will take undervalued assets away from the shareholders and capitalize on it for their "private" gains.  I am not sure this is the model for great capitalism.


I don't think that ANYBODY every inferred that investing was risk-free.  I honestly don't know why business institutions with a capable strong leader would choose to go public in the first place.  The lure of easy money is there, but surely these people know that with every share of stock sold, you're losing some ownership of the company.  I think that the new restrictions placed on public companies lately (to protect lazy and ignorant investors, to be sure) has soured many public companies on their decision.

----------


## Rover

They go public usually to raise the large amount of capital it takes to fulfill their growth ambitions, or to cash out.  By issuing common stock they don't have to pay interest on debt or pay dividends if they choose not to.  Going public satisfies real and honest ambitions and is a valuable tool in capitalism.  It lets lots of small investors share in economic growth.

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## Dubya61

I understand exactly what you're saying, but when you need capital and make a decision to not pay interest, you're selling ownership (in shares) of your company.  Go to that well often enough, and you've sold control of your company as well.  Do that and then mismanage your publicly-traded company in any fashion, you suddenly realize that you're the minority share owner.

----------


## Rover

Yes.  If your ambitions exceed your means, you need partners or a willing lender.  If they invest or loan based on promises made or implied, or simply with the expectation of management performing legally, ethically, etc., and it is proven they aren't acting so or in good faith, then the breach has to be remedied.

----------


## Just the facts

The problem arises when your willing accomplicaces sell their shares to someone who isn't willing to wait.  Maybe a good law would be if you buy during an IPO you have to hold the stock 5 years and then it can only be resold a total of 3 times.  After the 3rd time the only person you can sell to is the company itself.  That way investors are in the game because they believe in the product or service, not to make a fast $1.

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## Dubya61

I like that.  Would it be currently legal for a company to place such restrictions on their stock?

----------


## Just the facts

> I like that.  Would it be currently legal for a company to place such restrictions on their stock?


I did when I ran a small company.  We had a shareholders agreement that had to be signed before stock could be issued and we had a poison pill clause in the corporate bylaws that gave the company and exisiting stock holders first option to purchase any stock that went up for sale.  To ensure a fair price was offered if I agreed to buy all of your stock from you then you had the choice to sell to me or buy all of my stock for the same price per share.  That way no one could low-ball and any deal was fair to everyone.  Of course, we were a private company so I didn't have to care what the other shareholder thought.  If they didn't like it they could buy me out and since I had 32 million shares I wish they would have  :Smile: .

----------


## BoulderSooner

> The problem arises when your willing accomplicaces sell their shares to someone who isn't willing to wait.  Maybe a good law would be if you buy during an IPO you have to hold the stock 5 years and then it can only be resold a total of 3 times.  After the 3rd time the only person you can sell to is the company itself.  That way investors are in the game because they believe in the product or service, not to make a fast $1.


you are now pretty quick to want to restrict rights

----------


## Just the facts

> you are now pretty quick to want to restrict rights


Well, when you see something is having a negative effect what should you do, just keep doing it?  Maybe a tax on trades would be a good start.  It would raise a lot of money real fast and curb the "make a buck in a nano-second" traders.

----------


## BoulderSooner

> Well, when you see something is having a negative effect what should you do, just keep doing it?  Maybe a tax on trades would be a good start.  It would raise a lot of money real fast and curb the "make a buck in a nano-second" traders.


you act like company's get no benefit from the capital markets ... they all have a choice to go public or not ..   the free market is very good for companies most of the time ... and if a company really wants to keep "control"  they can do what google did and have super shares  that have more voting control .. New Share Class Gives Google Founders Tighter Control - NYTimes.com

----------


## Just the facts

> you act like company's get no benefit from the capital markets ... they all have a choice to go public or not ..   the free market is very good for companies most of the time ... and if a company really wants to keep "control"  they can do what google did and have super shares  that have more voting control .. New Share Class Gives Google Founders Tighter Control - NYTimes.com


A company only benefits from the IPO so the benefit is pretty short lived.  As more companies are going private I think it is clear indication that the short term gain isn't worth the long term hassel.  Do you wonder why Google implemented the super shares?  Answer, because they knew their company had to stay innovative and if they had to spend all their time concerned about their stock price they wouldn't be able to do that - see Apple.  What is the biggest concern at Apple right now.  It isn't what new product they are coming out with - it is their declining stock price and what they are going to do about it.

----------


## Dubya61

> you are now pretty quick to want to restrict rights


I assume you mean this restricts certain activities of the stockholder through a purchase covenant.  Such a covenant does nothing to restrict anybody's civil rights.  You weren't talking about civil rights, eh?

----------


## BoulderSooner

> A company only benefits from the IPO so the benefit is pretty short lived.  As more companies are going private I think it is clear indication that the short term gain isn't worth the long term hassel.  Do you wonder why Google implemented the super shares?  Answer, because they knew their company had to stay innovative and if they had to spend all their time concerned about their stock price they wouldn't be able to do that - see Apple.  What is the biggest concern at Apple right now.  It isn't what new product they are coming out with - it is their declining stock price and what they are going to do about it.


M and A goes in cycles and always has .. there is not a long term trend

----------


## onthestrip

This was argued about a few pages back I believe. Probably safe to say Aubrey doesn't have loads of cash lying around.

Aubrey McClendon falls off Forbes billionaire list

----------


## Praedura

Curious as to what Aubrey is up to?

Oklahoma City real estate market braces for Chesapeake property sales | News OK




> A newly-formed McClendon company, Arcadia Capital LLC recently took out a $200,000 building permit
>  for the sixth floor of the Harvey Parkway Building, 301 NW 63rd, which Chesapeake owned until January.
> 
> Filings with the Oklahoma Secretary of State show Arcadia Capital and McClendon Energy Operating LLC
>  were formed by the law firm of McClendon's longtime friend and attorney, Shannon Self, in the weeks
> before and after he announced his upcoming April 1 departure.


Of course, the bulk of the article is about Chesapeake's real estate holdings -- acquisitions, and now, selling off.

I do like this part:




> Kurt Foreman, executive vice president of economic development at the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, 
> believes Chesapeake's surplus office properties won't be empty for long.
> 
> “I don't think it will create a glut on the market,” Foreman said. “We heard the same concerns when Devon
> announced its tower. There are few pockets of space downtown now based on what we're seeing. 
> 
> *We have a high number of companies from out of state wanting to come into Oklahoma City*
>  and we have a challenge finding large amounts of existing space for them.”


That's an encouraging statement.

----------


## Pete

Aubrey still owns tons of land in Arcadia / East Edmond and of course has an interest in many of the Chesapeake wells, so there is a lot to manage even without him taking on anything new.

But it's interesting he's taking a full floor in the Harvey Parkway building.  That's about 16,000 square feet of office space that could house a great number of employees.

----------


## simbaokc

Since everyone in Oklahoma City looks at the glass as half empty, beating up Aubrey at every chance and being critical of all things CHK and Aubrey, I think the glass is half full and we owe Aubrey and CHK for the resurgent foundation they have built in OKC.  Not long ago, those half empty thinkers were talking about how Aubrey was crazy by not hedging 2013 gas prices...so he steps down and the new sheriff in town hedges the gas...now look what the analyst are saying as they downgrade the stock..."Analyst Tim Rezvan said in a research note to clients that Chesapeakes current 2013 gas hedges dampen exposure to resurgent natural gas prices. He added that shares are more than fully valued at the current price.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2013/03/19/chesapeake-energy-shares-fall-on-downgrade-from-stern-agee/#ixzz2O1crmko2"

Oh Snap, was Aubrey right???!!!!  Go fish!

----------


## metro

Bold statement saying Everyone in OKC is pessimist, I'd bet those odds and say not even half are.

----------


## OKCTalker

Thoughtful people tend to be of two minds on Aubrey McClendon: He is a bright, charismatic, visionary builder of a company and industry, and has played a large role in other significant developments (Thunder, rowing, 63rd/Western real estate development). His is legendary for his philanthropy. 

But he can be faulted for his poor stewardship of CHK shareholder money, for grossly overpaying for oil & gas leases and real estate around the corporate campus, for tearing down a substantial amount of that real estate, and for failing to profitably build/build out/lease what was built (Classen Curve, Triangle, NH Plaza). He may also be guilty of price-fixing and conspiracy - the Michigan attorney general and USDOJ will determine that. 

And his next chapter is about to begin.

----------


## Pete

Tom Ward wrote a letter to the Oklahoman in support of what Aubrey has done for OKC:





> Consider the community support that Aubrey engineered during his time at Chesapeake. In 2012, Chesapeake donated $32 million to charitable organizations and projects throughout its operating areas nationwide, supporting community development, health, education and social services. In Oklahoma alone, that number totaled $24 million. Companywide United Way contributions were $6.3 million in 2012, with $5.5 million raised for the United Way’s Central Oklahoma chapter alone, by far the largest single contribution to the $22.2 million campaign.


McClendon?s vision has positive impact | News OK

----------


## Pete

It was reported in the Oklahoman last week that McClendon has leased out a full floor at the Harvey Parkway Building (NW 63rd & Harvey) that Chesapeake just sold to investors after only holding for a year.

I've heard that Aubrey wants to come back strong and as his new enterprise grows, he will build on the land he owns on Broadway Extension & Wilshire (shown in blue below):

----------


## HangryHippo

Is there nothing we can do to get the man to build closer to downtown?  Maybe he just really, really loves having his office not far from his home?

----------


## Teo9969

> Is there nothing we can do to get the man to build closer to downtown?  Maybe he just really, really loves having his office not far from his home?


Wouldn't anyone? Besides, he's not building a campus right now. The company he puts together is not going to start at 1,000 or even 500 employees. I imagine it will take them around 6 to 18 months to get to 100 employees and then ~10 years to edge the 500 mark. 500 employees requires some space, but not even something the size of OPUBCO tower.

----------


## ou48A

Click for more
RIGZONE - For CEOs Like McClendon, Buyout Game Can Be Second Act

For CEOs Like McClendon, Buyout Game Can Be Second Act

Mr. McClendon is meeting with private-equity investors and others to discuss potentially teaming up for new ventures, according to several people familiar with the discussions.

Mr. McClendon also has spoken with energy executives who in the past worked with buyout shops. At this juncture, Mr. McClendon is asking more questions than he is sharing details of future plans. Among his queries: How much autonomy and control would he have if he received financing from a Wall Street firm, according to one person he's spoken with.

----------


## Pete

No question Aubrey will be back and probably soon.  The nature of hard-driven entrepreneurs is that they go through many boom/bust cycles.

But I also think it's pretty clear his new empire will evolve along Broadway Extension.

It will also be interesting to see what he does with his considerable land holdings, mainly rural land in East Edmond and Deer Creek.

----------


## dankrutka

> Thoughtful people tend to be of two minds on Aubrey McClendon...


This. I hate when people frame discussions as either/or arguments. Worthwhile dialogue does not close off possibilities like that...

----------


## Teo9969

> This. I hate when people frame discussions as either/or arguments. Worthwhile dialogue does not close off possibilities like that...


Like!

----------


## warreng88

It is no secret that Aubrey McClendon is going to do start another company shortly. He has already leased space in the Harvey Parkway Building just east of the campus he built. The county assessor shows it was bought by CHK Land Development Co LLC on 1/13/2012. The $&!t didn't really hit the fan until April 18, 2012 when reuters reported that he borrowed $1.1 billion against his own personal stake in the wells. The building was sold for $3.6 million loss on 12/26/2012. I am curious if he created an exit strategy late last year. He lost his CEO title in June of 2012 and maybe he knew his days were numbered so he had a few floors outfitted in the building, sold it at the end of the year, announced his retirement on 1/29/2013 and leased space from the people the building was sold to prior to his leaving CHK. Not a conspiracy theorist, just asking questions...

----------


## fromdust

My friend that does titles has said he is already doing work for Aubrey's new company. I'll see if I can get the name again since I've already forgotten it.

----------


## Pete

Aubrey is back at it...  This email was sent to a bunch of people in the oil & gas business yesterday:

*****************

From: Aubrey McClendon [aubrey.mcclendon@aep-lp.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Subject: Introducing American Energy Partners, LP

Good day to you! I have started a new E&P company, American Energy Partners, LP, and I am interested in being contacted regarding onshore US assets. My goal is to build a substantial E&P company both through the drillbit and through acquisitions of producing properties.

In particular, I will be looking for deals with a lot of drilling left on them and will also consider undeveloped acreage deals – plus, I am not scared of natural gas. 

Thanks, Aubrey

Aubrey K. McClendon
Chairman and CEO

aubrey.mcclendon@aep-lp.com • American Energy Partners
(o) 405.879.9226

P.O. Box 18756, Oklahoma City, OK 73154

301 NW 63rd, Ste. 600, Oklahoma City, OK 73116

----------


## HangryHippo

> Aubrey is back at it...  This email was sent to a bunch of people in the oil & gas business yesterday:
> 
> *****************
> 
> From: Aubrey McClendon [aubrey.mcclendon@aep-lp.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013
> Subject: Introducing American Energy Partners, LP
> 
> Good day to you! I have started a new E&P company, American Energy Partners, LP, and I am interested in being contacted regarding onshore US assets. My goal is to build a substantial E&P company both through the drillbit and through acquisitions of producing properties.
> ...


Well damn.  Best of luck to him.  I'd love for OKC to have another CHK minus the financial craziness of the last couple of years.

----------


## GaryOKC6

> Aubrey is back at it...  This email was sent to a bunch of people in the oil & gas business yesterday:
> 
> *****************
> 
> From: Aubrey McClendon [aubrey.mcclendon@aep-lp.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013
> Subject: Introducing American Energy Partners, LP
> 
> Good day to you! I have started a new E&P company, American Energy Partners, LP, and I am interested in being contacted regarding onshore US assets. My goal is to build a substantial E&P company both through the drillbit and through acquisitions of producing properties.
> ...


This is great news for Oklahoma City.

----------


## Pete

Brianna Bailey of Newsok.com had a blog post about this last week:

Aubrey McClendon is back in business

----------


## LakeEffect

I thought he had a non-compete clause... must be a pretty loose clause. The Capital company could skirt that, but I assumed no energy-specific work. Crazy.

----------


## ou48A

> This is great news for Oklahoma City.


Yes, its very good news because he has a lot of talent….
 But let’s hope that he has learned something from his mistakes and doesn’t become over extended again and again.

----------


## Pete

I bet he will follow the same blueprint as before and be very aggressive doing it; that's his style.

But it sounds like more focus on liquids other than natural gas.

----------


## Pete

Also, the word is that he's been hiring lots of former Chesapeake people.

We all know Tom Price followed him but it sounds like scores of others as well.


This may be a win/win for OKC, as Chesapeake seems to have stabilized and now there will be another E&P player on the scene.  And you can bet they will grow fast.

----------


## HangryHippo

> I bet he will follow the same blueprint as before and be very aggressive doing it; that's his style.
> 
> But it sounds like more focus on liquids other than natural gas.


I don't mind aggressively pursuing goals, but he needs to exercise a wee bit of restraint compared to his days at CHK.  There's a fine line between aggressive and reckless and Aubrey needs to exercise some caution this go round.

----------


## BoulderSooner

> I bet he will follow the same blueprint as before and be very aggressive doing it; that's his style.
> 
> But it sounds like more focus on liquids other than natural gas.


i would also bet that when he goes public again (not if when)   he uses super shares to retain voting majority control

----------


## ou48A

AKM and company would be very wise to more closely follow the high school educated Harold Hamm model of doing business in the energy sector.

----------


## HangryHippo

Do any of you care to help Brianna Bailey out as she posted the following tweet:

Brianna Bailey @briannabailey80

Why would Aubrey McClendon structure his new company as and limited partnership? What does this tell us? Any corporate lawyers out there?

I think it has more to do with liability and structuring of control so that Aubrey runs it with money from others, but I'm not a corporate lawyer so I really don't know.

BTW, did anyone else read the conversation between her and baxtron1000?  That guy is an ass!

----------


## soonerguru

> I thought he had a non-compete clause... must be a pretty loose clause. The Capital company could skirt that, but I assumed no energy-specific work. Crazy.


I thought non-competes were unenforceable in Oklahoma.

----------


## Pete

Brianna picked up on the email we shared on this site and did a full-blown story in today's Oklahoman:

McClendon starts new energy company down the street from Chesapeake | News OK

----------


## Just the facts

> I thought he had a non-compete clause... must be a pretty loose clause. The Capital company could skirt that, but I assumed no energy-specific work. Crazy.


According the paper this morning the non-compete doesn't even start until Chesapeake makes their final severance payment (sometime in 2016), and even then it is very limited in what is considered 'competing'.  Personally, I would like to see Ward and McClendon buy out Sandridge and take it private.  Even if they go the supershare route that is essentially the same thing as private.  However, with the current new LLCs, they can't even sell stock.

----------


## Teo9969

> According the paper this morning the non-compete doesn't even start until Chesapeake makes their final severance payment (sometime in 2016), and even then it is very limited in what is considered 'competing'.  Personally, I would like to see Ward and McClendon buy out Sandridge and take it private.  Even if they go the supershare route that is essentially the same thing as private.  However, with the current new LLCs, they can't even sell stock.


I thought the non-compete started effective immediately through when he was getting paid and finished in 2016 when his severance ended? I understand them not wanting him to compete with them while they are paying him. I don't understand him signing an agreement to not compete when he gains nothing from that agreement.

----------


## GaryOKC6

> I thought non-competes were unenforceable in Oklahoma.


I think that you are right.  I have been told the same thing.

----------


## HangryHippo

From the Oklahoma Bar Assocation:

The New Law and Its Limited Scope

Effective June 4, 2001, Okla. Stat. Tit. 15 219A (“ 219A”) changed the law on covenants not to compete in Oklahoma. It states:

A. A person who makes an agreement with an employer, whether in writing or verbally, not to compete with the employer after the employment relationship has been terminated, shall be permitted to engage in the same business as that conducted by the former employer or in a similar business as that conducted by the former employer as long as the former employee does not directly solicit the sale of goods, services or a combination of goods and services from the established customers of the former employer.

B. Any provision in a contract between an employer and an employee in conflict with the provisions of this section shall be void and unenforceable.

----------


## OKCTalker

> I think that you are right.  I have been told the same thing.


Non-competes ARE enforceable according to my attorney, but they range on a scale from being totally enforceable to not enforceable at all. It comes down to the individual being able to earn a living, and how much reasonable control is exerted over him. Caveat: This was in the context of business partners, not employees, so this may be how/why OnlyOne's statute may not apply in this circumstance. Also, it's difficult to think of AKM as a former employee of CHK; most people think of the company as an extension of him. 

Totally enforceable: "You must not engage in this tightly and clearly-defined industry sector in this tight and clearly-defined geographic area over this reasonably-brief period of time." 
Totally unenforceable: "You can't participate in any related aspect of the industry you're leaving, anywhere in the world, ever again." 

Between the two is the murk.

----------


## HangryHippo

Thanks for the clarification.  So, it's likely that Aubrey can do most of what he wants given the narrow scope of what might be enforceable.

----------


## Rover

Non compete now through 6 months after last severance pay.  But, it is limited to competition in certain areas and things not to the detriment of Chesapeake.  Lots of ways to operate around that.  And, I would bet that in negotiations certain positions would be waved on any properties he might buy directly from Chesapeake.  Aubrey's mind is working about 23 1/2 hours a day.  And, I would bet he is on a mission to show he is smarter than the current board of Chesapeake.

----------


## ljbab728

An update on Aubrey's situation.

Filing outlines details of Aubrey McClendon's separation agreement with Chesapeake Energy | News OK




> McClendon is free to pursue new business opportunities in the field, but Chesapeake can step in and buy assets McClendon wants if those assets are located in the same spacing unit as the company's existing acreage on April 1. If such “restricted assets” make up more than 40 percent of the total acreage McClendon wants to buy, McClendon must first receive Chesapeake's approval.

----------


## OklahomaNick

Its official that Aubrey McClendon's new company will be called *American Energy Partners*.
Has anyone seen the "Now Hiring" billboard near 63rd & Harvey?
I thought that this new company would need an entire new thread of its own.

----------


## OklahomaNick

Its official that Aubrey McClendon's new company will be called American Energy Partners.
Has anyone seen the "Now Hiring" billboard near 63rd & Harvey?
I thought that this new company would need an entire new thread of its own.

----------


## Anonymous.

I wonder what the inbox to that email account looks like.

----------


## OklahomaNick

Their basic website is also up:

American Energy Partners

----------


## lasomeday

> Its official that Aubrey McClendon's new company will be called American Energy Partners.
> Has anyone seen the "Now Hiring" billboard near 63rd & Harvey?
> I thought that this new company would need an entire new thread of its own.


There is one on I-40 just south of downtown too.

----------


## Pete

McClendon's Arcadia Capital LLC just applied for a $350,000 building permit to remodel the entire 3rd floor of the Harvey Parkway building.

I believe they already occupy the entire 6th floor, so this would give them about 30,000 square feet, or a third of that building.

Considering they only moved into their current space a few months ago, this represents pretty substantial growth.

----------


## GaryOKC6

> McClendon's Arcadia Capital LLC just applied for a $350,000 building permit to remodel the entire 3rd floor of the Harvey Parkway building.
> 
> I believe they already occupy the entire 6th floor, so this would give them about 30,000 square feet, or a third of that building.
> 
> Considering they only moved into their current space a few months ago, this represents pretty substantial growth.


They are growing very fast.  I believe that they are up to 50 employees now.

----------


## OklahomaNick

I heard that they were close to 25 employees right now, and hope to be up to 100 by the end of the year. 
I wonder when they are going to announce their first acquisition, either a smaller company or land rights.

----------


## HangryHippo

I apologize if this is an ignorant question, but what exactly is Arcadia Capital's role?  Just investment/money for acquisitions for AEP?

----------


## Pete

I believe Arcadia Capital LLC is just an umbrella entity.

It's the same one listed when they built out the 6th floor of the Harvey Parkway building, which we now know houses mainly his new oil company operations.


As usual, Aubrey has lots of things going on -- land investment, Pops, oil & gas stuff and who knows what all else -- and all those businesses tend to be intermingled.

----------


## Snowman

> I heard that they were close to 25 employees right now, and hope to be up to 100 by the end of the year. 
> I wonder when they are going to announce their first acquisition, either a smaller company or land rights.


If there is a not compete clause, any land rights acquisitions would probably be kept close to the vest

----------


## HangryHippo

> If there is a not compete clause, any land rights acquisitions would probably be kept close to the vest


Didn't someone chime in and explain why those agreements are unenforceable in OK?

----------


## OKCTalker

> Didn't someone chime in and explain why those agreements are unenforceable in OK?


I said that non-competition agreements are more enforceable the more specific they are, but this is a horse of a different color. Heck, different species for that matter.

----------


## HangryHippo

> I said that non-competition agreements are more enforceable the more specific they are, but this is a horse of a different color. Heck, different species for that matter.


Here's an article that sheds a little light on what he can and can't do.  It's a little old, but it does touch on his ability to purchase assets next to CHK holdings.

----------


## Pete

ANOTHER building permit for Arcadia Capital for the Harvey Parkway building.

This time they are spending $130,000 to build out 5,200 sq.ft. on the ground floor for a recreation center.

----------


## blangtang

McClendon targets $1bn funds for new group



Aubrey McClendon, the controversial former chief executive of Chesapeake Energy, is attempting to stage a comeback by trying to raise $1bn in capital from private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds for his new company.

Mr McClendon set up American Energy Partners earlier this year after being forced out of Chesapeake following a shareholders revolt. The company intends to buy onshore US oil and gas assets and aims to build a best in class exploration and production company, according to its website.

McClendon targets $1bn funds for new group - FT.com

its sort of behind a subscription/paywall, not really sure if this is big news or what not...

----------


## Pete

I'd say it's big news!

I hope he succeeds and builds another empire in OKC.

----------


## blangtang

yeah maybe so...

just looked at SandRidge market cap- ~ 2.5Billion, 

so if he can raise 1 B he could do some decent sized acquisitions, to get going...

no idea though what the plans are...

----------


## Pete

And the billion would be on top of what he already has going, which is significant.

Got to hand it to the guy, he's very smart and aggressive.  There will be plenty who will want to jump into bed with him.

----------


## Praedura

raise 1bn?

Sigh. Some people got the skills. Me? I have trouble raising 20 bucks.  :Smile:

----------


## Bellaboo

> And the billion would be on top of what he already has going, which is significant.
> 
> Got to hand it to the guy, he's very smart and aggressive.  *There will be plenty who will want to jump into bed with him*.


I'd jump into bed with his niece but not him.....lol

----------


## ou48A

McClendon looking to get $1B to fund new company: FT - Energy Ticker - MarketWatch

June 6, 2013, 11:15 AM
By Claudia Assis

He’s baaack: Aubrey McClendon, the, ahem, colorful former Chesapeake Energy chief executive, is trying to raise $1 billion from private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds for his new company, according to an article in the Financial Times.

McClendon founded American Energy Partners after being forced to retire from Chesapeake, a company he co-founded in the 1989. The Financial Times said it was not yet clear if he had found anyone willing to give him money.
The article, citing unnamed people familiar with his plans, went on to say McClendon could take advantage of low interest rates and tap markets to fund AEP.

AEP has been hiring for some time on its website, asking for “the best and the brightest” to join the company. Candidates should be “excited about ground floor involvement with an accomplished industry leader.”

McClendon left Chesapeake under a cloud of criticism and accusations he profited from transactions involving company assets. An internal investigation found no wrongdoing, but McClendon “agreed to retire,” as the company put it, on April 1.
McClendon was allowed to have a 2.5% stake in each well Chesapeake drilled, and he retains such holdings. 

His non-compete agreement with Chesapeake ends June 2017, but “that will not necessarily stop him doing deals in the same areas in which Chesapeake operates,” the Financial Times said.

The former CEO has also kept busy setting up other companies, including a family office — private companies the wealthy set up to manage their financial affairs — called Arcadia Capital LLC and McClendon Energy Partners.

----------


## OKCTalker

Energy Deal Maker Eyes Big Slice of Pie - WSJ.com 
From the lead...

_During more than two decades as chief executive of Chesapeake Energy Corp., CHK +1.50% Aubrey McClendon received generous pay packages and freely invested the company's money to build a natural-gas powerhouse.

Now that he is pitching Wall Street on his new energy company, Mr. McClendon is asking for a lot of money, an unusually large slice of profits and a high degree of control over his business.

It isn't clear he will get what he wants this time.

In April, after setting up shop in a six-story Oklahoma City building and conducting informal meetings with prospective backers, Mr. McClendon, 53 years old, sent a six-page letter to about a dozen private-equity firms.

The letter said that Mr. McClendon wants to raise between $2 billion and $3 billion of "initial equity capital" for his new exploration-and-production company, American Energy Partners LP.

Mr. McClendon and his team want to keep a large cut of any profits of the new business—half of all earnings after a certain investment-return threshold is met, according to the letter—and he expects to maintain more control than usual in these kinds of deals, the letter said._

----------


## onthestrip

Wants more control and more of the profits..? Couple that with his reputation of handling others people money and Im not sure we will see investors lining up anytime soon.

----------


## Rover

I think you might be surprised how much he raises and how fast he gets this done.

----------


## HangryHippo

> Wants more control and more of the profits..? Couple that with his reputation of handling others people money and Im not sure we will see investors lining up anytime soon.


This was my initial reaction, but the more I thought about it, the more I think Rover's right.  He's going to get it done and it won't take long.

----------


## OKCTalker

Private equity money comes with fewer hoops and regulations than institutional money, and isn't subject to the same disclosure rules.

----------


## soonerguru

Hopefully Aubrey will have the good sense to keep his new company private. He's not cut out for running a publicly traded corporation.

----------


## CaptDave

> Hopefully Aubrey will have the good sense to keep his new company private. He's not cut out for running a publicly traded corporation.


Agree 100%. Had Chesapeake remained private, he would still be there. Like him or not, you have to give the man credit for being fearless and doing far more good than bad.

----------


## Pete

Lots of people are great entrepreneurs and not necessarily skilled at handling huge public companies as a CEO.

I think Aubrey is of that sort and he probably didn't even realize it until recently.


It will be very interesting to see what happens with Tom Ward, as he is almost certain to be turned out of SandRidge by the end of this month.

I bet the two of them will at least collaborate and you can also bet Ward will be back making deals himself if in fact SD sends him packing.

----------


## BoulderSooner

> Hopefully Aubrey will have the good sense to keep his new company private. He's not cut out for running a publicly traded corporation.


he will go public again .. but this time he will use super shares and retain voting control ..

----------


## Rover

I think it will be a few very large investors and not the kind of public company Chesapeake had become.  There are all kinds of families and individuals out there with considerable cash to whom $250 million or more is not a big deal.  Think people like Boone.  Techies, oilies, international investors......

----------


## onthestrip

Investor interest sounds pretty tepid at the moment.

Aubrey McClendon, of Chesapeake, Is Asking for a Lot in American Energy Partners Pitch - WSJ.com

----------


## Rover

I said it would be sooner than people think....but I didn't say by tomorrow.   :Smile: 

While everyone was bemoaning the non-compete and crying "whatever will Aubrey do now", I predicted he would immediately get back in the game.  Guess I was right.  Bet I am right on this too.  AM will not let too much time pass and he has BIG dreams.

----------


## OKCTalker

Who said that Aubrey was going to be sitting around with nothing to do?

----------


## Mississippi Blues

> Who said that Aubrey was going to be sitting around with nothing to do?


Not Rover.  :Smile:

----------


## Teo9969

The numbers it will take to quench his thirst will require that he goes public.

Boulder's right.

The only real question I have is will his company be closer to a $10B company or a $5B company by 2018. I lean toward the former.

----------


## Pete

BTW, I wonder about Aubrey's real estate development plans.

We all know he has a great passion in this area and that he has assembled tons of acreage in the East Edmond / Arcadia / Jones area.

But beyond that, I wonder if he would be interested in buying NH Plaza or the land CHK owns on the OK River next to the airpark?

He was the one with all the grandiose development plans and now that Chesapeake wants to shed extraneous properties, maybe he'll put his own money into these ventures.

----------


## HangryHippo

> BTW, I wonder about Aubrey's real estate development plans.
> 
> We all know he has a great passion in this area and that he has assembled tons of acreage in the East Edmond / Arcadia / Jones area.
> 
> But beyond that, I wonder if he would be interested in buying NH Plaza or the land CHK owns on the OK River next to the airpark?
> 
> He was the one with all the grandiose development plans and now that Chesapeake wants to shed extraneous properties, maybe he'll put his own money into these ventures.


I was just coming here to ask something similar, weird.  If he can put it together, I wouldn't mind seeing the block by the airpark developed.  I damn sure wanted to see his vision for NH Plaza realized, particularly after he gutted it of the original tenants.

----------


## onthestrip

> BTW, I wonder about Aubrey's real estate development plans.
> 
> We all know he has a great passion in this area and that he has assembled tons of acreage in the East Edmond / Arcadia / Jones area.
> 
> But beyond that, I wonder if he would be interested in buying NH Plaza or the land CHK owns on the OK River next to the airpark?
> 
> He was the one with all the grandiose development plans and now that Chesapeake wants to shed extraneous properties, maybe he'll put his own money into these ventures.


Im skeptical. Its damn easy paying money for prime real estate when its not your money. If he does get back into a real estate buying spree, he will have to change his ways. You cant pay 3x the value for a piece of ground or some buildings and expect to make money.

----------


## Pete

> Im skeptical. Its damn easy paying money for prime real estate when its not your money. If he does get back into a real estate buying spree, he will have to change his ways. You cant pay 3x the value for a piece of ground or some buildings and expect to make money.


Yes, and it also has to be said that he would be a very funny situation, wouldn't he?

He would have to pay them at least what they have into these properties -- which is way, way over market -- or admit that he exercised very poor judgment in the spending of shareholder money.

----------


## OKCTalker

He overpaid for non-CHK real estate using OPM, never disclosed his plans, dragged his feet on developing properties, took too long during construction, and then had to buy the tenants. 

If a young real estate developer did this with a bank's money he'd be foreclosed upon and run out of the industry.

----------


## Pete

There will soon be a sign on the Harvey Parkway Building for "American Energy Partners", which is Aubrey's company.

Sign permit this week.  May already be going up.

They are now leasing about a third of that building.

----------


## catch22

I'm not betting against him.

I wish I could invest a few thousand and cash in on a million or so in a couple of years.

Unfortunately, he wipes with similar sizes of money as my cash investment, so I'm sure he wouldn't even look at it. :P

----------


## Pete

On the real estate development front, this is a great article about a Lake Texoma project where McClendon is one of the owners.

Bottom line:  His ownership group may be sued in the near future by the State for not delivering on promises to develop a large property that was the former site of a lodge:

Lake Texoma area residents, state officials grow frustrated with stalled Pointe Vista development | News OK

----------


## OKCTalker

Oklahoma state agency claims Lake Texoma contract is secret | News OK 

Reported in Saturday's DO but not (yet) picked up here is the attempt by Aubrey McClendon & partner Mark Fischer to keep confidential an agreement to buy 1,022 acres from the state. Their entity is Pointe Vista and Fischer is CEO of Chaparral Energy. Pointe Vista inserted a confidentiality clause in the agreement which appears to violate the Oklahoma open records laws. Vista Pointe's earlier purchase of 758 acres for $14.6 million was not protected by open records laws. No one from Dept. of Tourism was quoted in the story. The lead: 

_The state Tourism and Recreation Department will not provide a copy of a contract to sell more than 1,000 acres of state park land at Lake Texoma to a private developer, although experts say the document should be subject to the state's open records law.

The contract, penned in 2008 by state tourism officials with Oklahoma City-based Pointe Vista Development, is for the sale of 1,022 acres of land in Lake Texoma State Park that includes a public campground with panoramic lake views in Marshall County."_

----------


## OKCTalker

Perhaps there should be a new thread, "American Energy Partners Business Practices." 

Chesapeake Co-Founder's New Startup Bets Big on Ohio - WSJ.com 

In today's WSJ (but not the Oklahoman - what are they doing up there at Broadway & Britton Road?) is the story that AEP has raised $1.2 billion to explore in Ohio. From the lead: 

*Wildcatter McClendon Bets Big on Ohio Shale
*
_Aubrey McClendon, one of America's best known wildcatters, is betting again on striking it big in Ohio as he builds a new oil and gas exploration company.

Mr. McClendon's deal-making in the rustbelt echoes the wager he made as chief executive of Chesapeake Energy Corp., before being ousted by unhappy investors earlier this year. It offers the first glimpse of how he hopes his comeback will unfold after he lost control of the company he co-founded in 1989.

He has lined up about $1.2 billion in equity and debt financing for deals in Ohio, much of it coming from two energy-focused private-equity firms, according to people close to the matter.

Mr. McClendon is close to completing an agreement to get more than $500 million from the Energy & Minerals Group, a Houston firm run by John Raymond, son of former Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Lee Raymond, according to people close to the deal.

He expects to get another $200 million from private-equity group First Reserve, of Greenwich, Conn. Others will invest smaller sums, while Mr. McClendon will contribute some of his own money, the people said. The company has raised $400 million in debt, one person familiar with the matter said.

Mr. McClendon's new company, American Energy Partners LP, struck a deal earlier this month to buy drilling leases on more than 22,500 acres in southeastern Ohio for $284.3 million from closely held EnerVest Ltd. and its publicly traded unit EV Energy Partners LP, according to people familiar with the deal._

----------


## PhiAlpha

They are up to a little over 75 people in their offices now.

----------


## Just the facts

Anyone know what the minimum amount AM will accept as an investment?  If he started Chesapeake with $50,000 imagine what he can do if he starts with $1.2 billion.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Anyone know what the minimum amount AM will accept as an investment?  If he started Chesapeake with $50,000 imagine what he can do if he starts with $1.2 billion.


Not sure...but I'm definitely thinking along the same lines as you are. Dude is a genius...risky as hell and sketchy at times, but a genius when it comes to building up a company. We'll see if he's learned how to take what he builds and move it into development mode. Will be interesting to see if he ever tries to take AEP public.

----------


## soonerguru

> Not sure...but I'm definitely thinking along the same lines as you are. Dude is a genius...risky as hell and sketchy at times, but a genius when it comes to building up a company. We'll see if he's learned how to take what he builds and move it into development mode. Will be interesting to see if he ever tries to take AEP public.


I think he's a genius at lining up capital. I'll give him that. And he's also proven to be quite successful at spending other people's money. He must be an amazing salesperson.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> I think he's a genius at lining up capital. I'll give him that. And he's also proven to be quite successful at spending other people's money. He must be an amazing salesperson.


He can certainly build up a company... he just needs to figure out how to spend less doing it and when to stop.

----------


## adaniel

> Not sure...but I'm definitely thinking along the same lines as you are. Dude is a genius...risky as hell and sketchy at times, but a genius when it comes to building up a company. We'll see if he's learned how to take what he builds and move it into development mode.* Will be interesting to see if he ever tries to take AEP public.*


I would actually hope he does not go public, even if that meant not initially growing as fast. It is one thing to have a small circle of investors but still be private. Its quite another to go public and have to deal with Wall Street types and CNBC talking heads, not to mention all the SEC regulations, financial disclosures and scrutiny that comes with it. I think his a very smart person as well but I am not quite sure he has figured out how to manage other people's money. 

Frankly, I think a large number of companies should never go public, but that is another thread for another day.

----------


## Teo9969

> Not sure...but I'm definitely thinking along the same lines as you are. Dude is a genius...risky as hell and sketchy at times, but a genius when it comes to building up a company. We'll see if he's learned how to take what he builds and move it into development mode. *Will be interesting to see if he ever tries to take AEP public.*


When...I would think

No way he'll be content with building a company that tops out where most all private companies top out. There are only 2 companies in the US that gross more than $35B...

----------


## Teo9969

I just think he'll not lose all the shares this time...

----------


## BoulderSooner

> I just think he'll not lose all the shares this time...


he will most likely use super shares .. so that he retains majority control

----------


## Just the facts

> When...I would think
> 
> No way he'll be content with building a company that tops out where most all private companies top out. There are only 2 companies in the US that gross more than $35B...


...that you know of.  Private companies don't disclose those figures.

----------


## Teo9969

> ...that you know of.  Private companies don't disclose those figures.


You can't hide $100B...

----------


## OKCTalker

He'll never take another company public. Aubrey can't stand the oversight, disclosure requirements and loss of control, and investors couldn't stand another ride like the last one.

----------


## BoulderSooner

> He'll never take another company public. Aubrey can't stand the oversight, disclosure requirements and loss of control, and investors couldn't stand another ride like the last one.


i would bet that he does ... but that he retains majority control ....

----------


## Just the facts

AM has no reason to take a company public.  He can raise every dollar he needs via private equity.  However, if he ever did I expect him to take the cash a retire right after he does it.

He tried that control (he was the single largest stock holder although it was not a majority) stuff last time - then he had a margin call and had to sell it all.

From 2008

http://newsok.com/market-slide-wipes...rticle/3310107




> A slumping stock market forced Aubrey McClendon, the high-profile head of one of the state’s most dynamic energy companies, to sell "substantially all” of his 33.4 million shares of Chesapeake Energy stock, he disclosed Friday.

----------


## BoulderSooner

> AM has no reason to take a company public.  He can raise every dollar he needs via private equity.  However, if he ever did I expect him to take the cash a retire right after he does it.
> 
> He tried that control (he was the single largest stock holder although it was not a majority) stuff last time - then he had a margin call and had to sell it all.
> 
> From 2008
> 
> Market slide wipes out CEO?s Chesapeake holdings | News OK


that is why super shares are a good idea ...    USATODAY.com - Google IPO's two classes of stock raise questions

and he can also just retain control from the start ..   

he lost control because he bought tons and tons of "extra" peake shares on margin ... and when the drop happened and then the call .. he had to sell everything to cover his losses ..   

he won't make that mistake again

----------


## Just the facts

I'll agree with you that if he does do it - super shares are the only route he would take.  His biggest problem though would be getting enough investors to go along.  Google could do it because... well, because they were Google.

----------


## BoulderSooner

> I'll agree with you that if he does do it - super shares are the only route he would take.  His biggest problem though would be getting enough investors to go along.  Google could do it because... well, because they were Google.


the other option is to do what Harold did ... he still owns 70% +\- of CLR   and it is still "public"

----------


## zookeeper

He'll also have to be a little more on the up and up. My sole mineral rights lease (Apache) was looked over a few years back and the attorney said it looked fine and wasn't dodgy and pushing what should be company fees on to the mineral rights owner, that kind of thing. He specifically said at that time that Chesapeake leases are the worst. He said they are embarrassing to read thinking that a local company was responsible. He said at that time that Aubrey McClendon's greed (and the dirty, underhanded leases were just an example) would one day come back to bite him. Score one for my oil and gas attorney. 

Mr. McClendon is not exactly someone we should look up to. He wasn't a victim of an unfair shareholders rebellion. He was the victim of his own GREED.

----------


## Teo9969

I don't know Aubrey Mclendon in any interpersonal capacity, but from everything I have gathered, held wants to.be this generations JD Rockefeller.  You don't do that, in 2013, by staying private. At the very least, I think he wants to.build a company worth $100B...again only 2 private companies have revenues in the $100Bs.

It's one thing to raise $2.5B in private loans, it's quite another to raise $25B.

----------


## Bellaboo

> I don't know Aubrey Mclendon in any interpersonal capacity, but from everything I have gathered, held wants to.be this generations JD Rockefeller.  You don't do that, in 2013, by staying private. At the very least, I think he wants to.build a company worth $100B...again only 2 private companies have revenues in the $100Bs.
> 
> It's one thing to raise $2.5B in private loans, it's quite another to raise $25B.


I hope he succeeds, even with the cloud that hung over CHK, he knows how to give to his community.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> He'll also have to be a little more on the up and up. My sole mineral rights lease (Apache) was looked over a few years back and the attorney said it looked fine and wasn't dodgy and pushing what should be company fees on to the mineral rights owner, that kind of thing. He specifically said at that time that Chesapeake leases are the worst. He said they are embarrassing to read thinking that a local company was responsible. He said at that time that Aubrey McClendon's greed (and the dirty, underhanded leases were just an example) would one day come back to bite him. Score one for my oil and gas attorney. 
> 
> Mr. McClendon is not exactly someone we should look up to. He wasn't a victim of an unfair shareholders rebellion. He was the victim of his own GREED.


A) I have no doubt that CHK's leases favor the operator, I've seen them, they do, but so do leases sent out by any other company that doesn't have an idiot running the land department. We don't create leases that favor landowners, that is not our job. We create leases that allow us to do our job that are at least decently fair to the landowner. We aren't out to screw people over, but it's not our job to give anything away. When land owners ask for changes, we'll generally make concessions. 
B) CHK's leases aren't that much different than a "standard" Producer 88 lease form. 
C) It's your job as a landowner to read the lease and make sure that you feel you're getting a deal you're comfortable. If you don't feel you are capable of interpreting a lease, hire an attorney. So Zookeeper - Good job, you did what you should have if you weren't completely comfortable interpreting the lease yourself and I'm sure it has paid off for you. I don't have much sympathy for people who sign something without paying attention than cry foul when something doesn't turn out like they thought it should.

----------


## Teo9969

> A) I have no doubt that CHK's leases favor the operator, I've seen them, they do, but so do leases sent out by any other company that doesn't have an idiot running the land department. We don't create leases that favor landowners, that is not our job. We create leases that allow us to do our job that are at least decently fair to the landowner. We aren't out to screw people over, but it's not our job to give anything away. When land owners ask for changes, we'll generally make concessions. 
> B) CHK's leases aren't that much different than a "standard" Producer 88 lease form. 
> C) It's your job as a landowner to read the lease and make sure that you feel you're getting a deal you're comfortable. If you don't feel you are capable of interpreting a lease, hire an attorney. So Zookeeper - Good job, you did what you should have if you weren't completely comfortable interpreting the lease yourself and I'm sure it has paid off for you. I don't have much sympathy for people who sign something without paying attention *than cry foul when something doesn't turn out like they thought it should.*


or cry foul when they realize that they could have made more money had they been more informed. Once the landowner starts getting greedy and instead of talking about it at lease renewal decides to try and take it to court...well that's the one that is really annoying.

(Obviously there are cases where companies take certain things further than they should and rightfully lose a case, but I doubt that any Fortune 500 energy company is doing this on any sort of remotely regular basis)

----------


## onthestrip

> I hope he succeeds, even with the cloud that hung over CHK, he knows how to give to his community.


He gave money that wasn't his to the community. That's not that hard

----------


## PhiAlpha

> He gave money that wasn't his to the community. That's not that hard


He's given a lot of money that was his to the community as well. Also, do you live in a box? Corporations everywhere make major donations to the communities in which they are located. Do you think that money is the property of those CEOs? In the end, his community donations were a blip on the radar compared to the outrageous lease bonuses they were paying. If you're looking at misuse of shareholder money issues to criticize, look that direction.

----------


## onthestrip

> He's given a lot of money that was his to the community as well. Also, do you live in a box? Corporations everywhere make major donations to the communities in which they are located. Do you think that money is the property of those CEOs? In the end, his community donations were a blip on the radar compared to the outrageous lease bonuses they were paying. If you're looking at misuse of shareholder money issues to criticize, look that direction.


Of course most corps give money. But Aubrey made it a point to give a ton of money that wasnt his to buy goodwill for himself and the company. It must not have been that much of a blip because new management plans to scale back charitable and political donations by like 50% or more. 

Also, large lease bonuses are just one of a host of things that people could criticize. The list goes on. Either way, Im happy the company appears to be a little more stable and that their stock is actually going up, just cracked $26 briefly a little bit ago.

----------


## Just the facts

It' not shareholders money until it is paid out in dividends, and that is one of the problems shareholders had.  Instead of giving away the money in OKC in the form of high salaries, over paying for commercial space, charitable donations, etc... The Wall Street types wanted that money for themselves so they could get more money, over pay for luxury resort style homes, and their own charitable contributions.  And what does it cost us the taxpayer?  Salary is taxed as income in the 30% range, dividends are taxed at 15%.

----------


## BoulderSooner

> It' not shareholders money until it is paid out in dividends, and that is one of the problems shareholders had.  Instead of giving away the money in OKC in the form of high salaries, over paying for commercial space, charitable donations, etc... The Wall Street types wanted that money for themselves so they could get more money, over pay for luxury resort style homes, and their own charitable contributions.  And what does it cost us the taxpayer?  Salary is taxed as income in the 30% range, dividends are taxed at 15%.


dividends are already taxed when the company earns the money and pays taxes ..

----------


## Just the facts

> dividends are already taxed when the company earns the money and pays taxes ..


I don't know what to say other than we tax the transfer of money in this country, yet many of our largest corporations find a way out of paying a lot of them.

----------


## BoulderSooner

> I don't know what to say other than we tax the transfer of money in this country, yet many of our largest corporations find a way out of paying a lot of them.


i don't know what to say except i am surprised you are so anti investment ..

----------


## Just the facts

I would like to respond but we have gotten way off topic and my response would cause a huge detour, so I'll just leave it where we are.  :Smile:

----------


## zookeeper

I'm not so surprised he's anti-Wall Street as I am that he seems to see McClendon, one of the most notorious executive crooks in years, as some kind of great example.

----------


## flintysooner

> I'm not so surprised he's anti-Wall Street as I am that he seems to see McClendon, one of the most notorious executive crooks in years, as some kind of great example.


I didn't realize that McClendon had been charged let alone convicted of any crimes.  I remember reading that multiple investigations occurred but I don't recall learning the result.  Is he currently waiting appeal or trial on what crimes?

----------


## zookeeper

> I didn't realize that McClendon had been charged let alone convicted of any crimes.  I remember reading that multiple investigations occurred but I don't recall learning the result.  Is he currently waiting appeal or trial on what crimes?


He was cleared by his crony internal investigation. It's my understanding that all the federal investigations won't be through for quite some time. Not to mention the multitudes of civil cases filed against him personally from people all over the country.

----------


## Rover

Several courts have ruled in his favor too.  So far, nothing criminal has been found and I don't think any civil suits have stuck either. Maybe it is a crony court.  LOL

----------


## zookeeper

> Several courts have ruled in his favor too.  So far, *nothing criminal has been found* and I don't think any civil suits have stuck either. Maybe it is a crony court.  LOL


Last I heard, federal investigations don't apprise you of details until they hand down the goods, or clear you.

If Mr. McClendon didn't have an entire legal team to keep him out of trouble and open his checkbook to "settle" things (shut people up) he'd be in the big house. But we all know justice with the megarich goes to the highest bidder.

----------


## PWitty

> Last I heard, federal investigations don't apprise you of details until they hand down the goods, or clear you.
> 
> If Mr. McClendon didn't have an entire legal team to keep him out of trouble and open his checkbook to "settle" things (shut people up) he'd be in the big house. But we all know justice with the megarich goes to the highest bidder.


Last I heard, the "federal investigations" you speak of is a single investigation into the FWPP because Aubrey borrowed money from a bank CHK does business with. If borrowing money from a bank makes him "one of the most notorious executive crooks in years", then you need to step away from the keyboard. The loans were in his name, not CHK's. And one of the only reasons that even became an investigation is because the shareholders raised such a riot over it to get him removed as CEO. 

The only other drama was over the leases CHK signed in Michigan and that wasn't solely on Aubrey and CHK.

Aubrey didn't have the correct philosophy to guide a company that had already built up it's assets. He was too hungry for the next big play and could never just be happy with what he had and make money. He wasn't a good CEO for the position that CHK is in now, but that doesn't make him a "notorious crook".

----------


## Rover

> Last I heard, federal investigations don't apprise you of details until they hand down the goods, or clear you.
> 
> If Mr. McClendon didn't have an entire legal team to keep him out of trouble and open his checkbook to "settle" things (shut people up) he'd be in the big house. But we all know justice with the megarich goes to the highest bidder.


We get it...you hate rich people.

----------


## zookeeper

> Last I heard, the "federal investigations" you speak of is a single investigation into the FWPP because Aubrey borrowed money from a bank CHK does business with. If borrowing money from a bank makes him "one of the most notorious executive crooks in years", then you need to step away from the keyboard. The loans were in his name, not CHK's. And one of the only reasons that even became an investigation is because the shareholders raised such a riot over it to get him removed as CEO. 
> 
> *The only other drama* was over the leases CHK signed in Michigan and that wasn't solely on Aubrey and CHK.
> 
> Aubrey didn't have the correct philosophy to guide a company that had already built up it's assets. He was too hungry for the next big play and could never just be happy with what he had and make money. He wasn't a good CEO for the position that CHK is in now, but that doesn't make him a "notorious crook".


You're kidding, right?

How are you liking the new digs at AEP? Queue up the same book, next chapter.

----------


## zookeeper

> We get it...you hate rich people.


No. Only rich people who use it to buy loyalty, pay off detractors, and get richer by shady and questionable methods. You're right, I don't care for those kind of rich people.

----------


## OKCTalker

> It' not shareholders money until it is paid out in dividends, and that is one of the problems shareholders had.  Instead of giving away the money in OKC in the form of high salaries, over paying for commercial space, charitable donations, etc... The Wall Street types wanted that money for themselves so they could get more money, over pay for luxury resort style homes, and their own charitable contributions.  And what does it cost us the taxpayer?  Salary is taxed as income in the 30% range, dividends are taxed at 15%.


It was shareholder's money IN THE FIRST PLACE. They invested it, they took the risks, and they either won or lost. If they won and bought a luxury house, then that's their business. If they lost, then that's their problem. But I strongly disagree with a company that takes my money and uses it for non-business purposes. That's MY money - it was from the start, and it remains so until I'm repaid with interest or dividend.

----------


## Rover

It is shareholder equity.  Different from distributions.  

There are many expenses that many might call "non-business" purposes which actually can be.  One of those is the building up of facilities and the offering of amenities to employees which allows a firm to recruit top notch persons when there might be a competitive reason or other reason they might not otherwise be able to.  The fact that CP was repeatedly identified as a great place to work helped them recruit competitively.  Having a high image as a great corporate citizen makes their employees proud to be a part and helps make for great loyalty. But, these are easy targets to criticize...especially by people who hate others to have it better than them, those who have a tea party mentality, and large fund stock holders.

AM was aggressive, for sure.  Whether it was illegal or not has not been totally determined, but so far nothing illegal has been identified.  He also did some dumb things regarding personal expenditures and benefits that were bad and made him look really bad.  I understand how shareholders were pi$$ed, but OKCitians should be aware of all the good things he has done to help kick start this city's tranformation.

----------


## PWitty

> You're kidding, right?
> 
> How are you liking the new digs at AEP? Queue up the same book, next chapter.


You said there was multiple federal investigations going on currently. I said there was one, and added that the only other currently open investigation (which is not a federal case) is not solely on him. And you say that the FWPP was shady in the comment above, but the entire purpose of that program was to counter all the media and anti oil and gas development supporters throughout the country that called shale gas a ponzi scheme. The program was meant to say, "if these wells are so uneconomic and all we (CHK) are doing is losing money on them, then why would I invest this much of my own personal money into these properties?". It just so happened that he would also be able to make money off of those deals. The shareholders are the ones who voted that program from theory into reality.

----------


## flintysooner

In 2011 he was on the Forbes 20-20 list, too.  The CEO 20-20 Club - Forbes

----------


## PWitty

> It was shareholder's money IN THE FIRST PLACE. They invested it, they took the risks, and they either won or lost. If they won and bought a luxury house, then that's their business. If they lost, then that's their problem. But I strongly disagree with a company that takes my money and uses it for non-business purposes. That's MY money - it was from the start, and it remains so until I'm repaid with interest or dividend.


I'm sorry but I can't agree with that. When you invested your money in CHK you knew exactly who the Chairman and CEO was and you knew exactly how he was going to run the company. If not, then that is your own fault for not doing your due diligence and researching the company and its practices before you invested in it. And like Rover said, the majority of those non-business purposes allowed CHK to recruit high level engineers away from larger companies in Houston. Those expenses can most certainly be classified as business expenses. The money he continually mismanaged was spent on excess acreage and overly aggressive drilling budgets, and I don't think anyone will argue that those aren't business expenses.

----------


## zookeeper

> In 2011 he was on the Forbes 20-20 list, too.  The CEO 20-20 Club - Forbes


That was before this from Forbes The Two Sides Of Aubrey McClendon, America's Most Reckless Billionaire - Forbes

and this, a year later in Forbes, McClendon's Secret Hedge Fund Appears To Violate His Fiduciary Duty To Chesapeake - Forbes

Reuters blew it all open with this Special Report: Inside Chesapeake, CEO ran $200 million hedge fund | Reuters

We could go back to wine cellars, map collections, crony board members making huge sums for a few meetings a year (and to look the other way).

Yes, I think McClendon was as many said a year ago, the poster boy for all that's wrong with corporate CEO compensation.

----------


## PWitty

> That was before this from Forbes The Two Sides Of Aubrey McClendon, America's Most Reckless Billionaire - Forbes
> 
> and this, a year later in Forbes, McClendon's Secret Hedge Fund Appears To Violate His Fiduciary Duty To Chesapeake - Forbes
> 
> Reuters blew it all open with this Special Report: Inside Chesapeake, CEO ran $200 million hedge fund | Reuters
> 
> We could go back to wine cellars, map collections, crony board members making huge sums for a few meetings a year (and to look the other way).
> 
> Yes, I think McClendon was as many said a year ago, the poster boy for all that's wrong with corporate CEO compensation.


I never did get that one. Wow, so Aubrey used his knowledge of the natural gas industry to make personal investments in natural gas? How outrageous! You really think he is the only executive in the country who uses their knowledge of the industry they work in to make personal investments? The media can word a headline any way they want to try and get clicks on the article. Their whole premise was that CHK produced enough of the US's nat gas supply that he could use knowledge of CHK's upcoming operations to make money. Except Reuters said themselves that as far as they could tell he was long on nat gas the whole time and never changed his position. And just FYI CHK's 5% share of the US's nat gas production is not enough to single handedly influence the price of gas. There would never be a big enough shift on CHK's part to effect price unless all production ceased at once, and even then that would be iffy. There are so many factors that go into the price of nat gas besides CHK's production that its honestly hard to even take that accusation seriously. 

And I'm not trying to defend AM. I just get tired of seeing people who are misinformed continually try and push their opinions on other people and pass them on as facts.

----------


## flintysooner

The point of the 20-20 list was that for 20 years he was one of a rather small number who returned 20% annual gains for his investors.   Probably one reason he isn't having too much trouble attracting investors now.

----------


## zookeeper

> I never did get that one. Wow, so Aubrey used his knowledge of the natural gas industry to make personal investments in natural gas? How outrageous! You really think he is the only executive in the country who uses their knowledge of the industry they work in to make personal investments? The media can word a headline any way they want to try and get clicks on the article. Their whole premise was that CHK produced enough of the US's nat gas supply that he could use knowledge of CHK's upcoming operations to make money. Except Reuters said themselves that as far as they could tell he was long on nat gas the whole time and never changed his position. And just FYI CHK's 5% share of the US's nat gas production is not enough to single handedly influence the price of gas. There would never be a big enough shift on CHK's part to effect price unless all production ceased at once, and even then that would be iffy. There are so many factors that go into the price of nat gas besides CHK's production that its honestly hard to even take that accusation seriously. 
> 
> And I'm not trying to defend AM. I just get tired of seeing people who are misinformed continually try and push their opinions on other people and pass them on as facts.


So, is this the new spin from Harvey Parkway? Everybody was just "misinformed." Look up here (!&%$#$@!!!!!!), pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

You're not trying to defend AM? My best guess is you work for him. But, who knows? Maybe I'm misinformed about his PR "reimagination" scheme.

----------


## PWitty

It's funny how you just continue to prove my points for me.  

And no, I don't work for him. Considering I graduated from college about a month ago and I doubt he has already started up a college recruiting program at his new company. 

If AM was truly the crook you swear him to be he would be locked up right now, not receiving over a billion dollars in investments from outside investors only 4 months after leaving CHK.

----------


## flintysooner

It appears to me that if one invested in CHK from 2nd half of 2005 through 3rd quarter of 2008 and held through today there was a loss.  But an investment before or after that period through today is a gain.   Gain from Aug 23, 1993 thru today is 2146%.  Gain from Aug 23, 2003 is 145%.  But from 2nd half 2005 through 3rd quarter 2008 there are huge losses.  Or that's the way I read the charts anyway.

----------


## Pete

Aubredy McCledon doing business as Arcadia Capital and American Energy Partners just applied for a $300K building permit to remodel the entire 2nd floor of the Harvey Parkway Building, which is another 15,000 square feet.

They will then have the entire 2nd and 3rd floors, most of the 6th and a good chunk of the 1st.

Their space on the ground floor is for a dedicated fitness center.


That's 43,500 square feet of office space and almost $1 million in build out for that building, all since March.

----------


## warreng88

How long before he tries to buy back one of the old buildings on campus? Maybe the one on the NE corner of 63rd and Shartel?

----------


## Pete

New sign in front of Harvey Parkway:

----------


## Praedura

Anyone know what the difference is between "American Energy Partners" and "McClendon Energy Partners"?

Sounds duplicative to me (but what do I know?)

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Anyone know what the difference is between "American Energy Partners" and "McClendon Energy Partners"?
> 
> Sounds duplicative to me (but what do I know?)


I believe he formed Arcadia Capital to handle all of his real estate, McClendon Energy Partners to handle all of his personal interests in CHK wells from the founders participation program, and American Energy Partners as the new E&P entity. That's how it was summarized by a few of the people I know over there.

----------


## ou48A

Aubrey McClendon's new company | Watch the video - Yahoo Finance

Aubrey McClendon's new company

----------


## zookeeper

> New sign in front of Harvey Parkway:


If McClendon is still doing things the McClendon way, those three companies are only three of probably 687 he's formed. He knows how to play that shell game to make accounting extremely difficult. We'll see if he learned any lessons after Chesapeake.

----------


## Pete

Holy cats...  McClendon is most definitely a baller:




> Aubrey McClendon is to return with a new company that will buy and develop 80,000 acres in southern Utica shale region. CNBC's David Faber reports *McClendon is about to close on $1.8 billion in equity and financing* for the new endeavor.

----------


## soonerguru

How many laid off Chesapeake folks will he hire?

----------


## ou48A

> Holy cats...  McClendon is most definitely a baller:


The good news IMO is that his large investors will very likely install some business discipline that was missing at CHK and helped get CHK  in so much trouble.
With better oversight I look for this venture to grow responsibly, which is always best for our local economy.

----------


## PhiAlpha

Funny that they decided to run this in the paper on the same day as the CHK layoffs... hmmm...

McClendon's new company lands $1.7B in financing | News OK

----------


## OKVision4U

> How many laid off Chesapeake folks will he hire?


IMO ... the ones that were laidoff, will be able to walk in and fillout that application.

----------


## jn1780

Depends on what they did and how good they did it. Every large company has those people where you say " I can't believe this person is still employed here".

----------


## Pete

Building permit today to put a small restaurant in the Harvey Parkway Building in the name of Arcadia Capital, one of Aubrey's companies.

They are already leasing about half the building and put a health club in the ground floor.  With the restaurant, this appears to be a mini-Chesapeake situation.

----------


## OKVision4U

> Building permit today to put a small restaurant in the Harvey Parkway Building in the name of Arcadia Capital, one of Aubrey's companies.
> 
> They are already leasing about half the building and put a health club in the ground floor.  With the restaurant, this appears to be a mini-Chesapeake situation.


I hope he builds another Empire .... With 30 restaurants / 5 Weatherman /  ...and entire Child Development Center /...200,000 Wellness facility..  oh yeah... and 40,000 OVER PAID Oklahoma Employees !!!  Go AM.

----------


## venture

> I hope he builds another Empire .... With 30 restaurants / 5 Weatherman /  ...and entire Child Development Center /...200,000 Wellness facility..  oh yeah... and 40,000 OVER PAID Oklahoma Employees !!!  Go AM.


As long as he doesn't go public, let him pay his people whatever he wants.  :Smile:

----------


## jn1780

> As long as he doesn't go public, let him pay his people whatever he wants.


Since he's not going public and his new "empire" isn't being built at the height of an economic bubble, I bet he will be a lot more conservative with salaries. lol

----------


## OKVision4U

> As long as he doesn't go public, let him pay his people whatever he wants.


Seriously, why would anyone "care" (employees / city of OKC / state of Oklahoma ) if it is Public or Private?  ...either way, it is a non-factor.  We are not Wall Street or FTC.  We are not his Board of Directors.  ...???

Most people don't realize when they are part of something "kinda cool", and they don't see it.  ???  ( this again is the Forrest & The Trees ).

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Since he's not going public and his new "empire" isn't being built at the height of an economic bubble, I bet he will be a lot more conservative with salaries. lol


Yes, from what I've heard from my friends and contacts at AEP, former CHK employees there have taken a decent sized pay cut compared to what they were being paid at CHK, at least for now.

----------


## Stinger

Watching the Thunder broadcast last night, I noticed AEPs is one of the new Thunder Broadcast sponsors.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Watching the Thunder broadcast last night, I noticed AEPs is one of the new Thunder Broadcast sponsors.


Yeah I guess it was only a matter of time. They can pick up where sandridge left off.

----------


## Pete

Another 7,000 square feet to be built out for AEP / Arcadia Capital in the Harvey Parkway Building.

That's now over 51,000 total square feet, more than half the building.

And over $1.1 million in tenant improvements, including a fitness center, restaurant and exec offices with private bathrooms.

----------


## Bellaboo

Can't wait to see if Aubrey is still sitting next to Clay at the Thunder home games ? I have no idea if the seats are Founder or Corporate ?

----------


## Praedura

> Another 7,000 square feet to be built out for AEP / Arcadia Capital in the Park Harvey Building.
> 
> That's now over 51,000 total square feet, more than half the building.
> 
> And over $1.1 million in tenant improvements, including a fitness center, restaurant and exec offices with private bathrooms.


This surprises me. What is Aubrey's interest in the Park Harvey? He's never shown much interest in downtown real estate before (that I know of).

----------


## Pete

> This surprises me. What is Aubrey's interest in the Park Harvey? He's never shown much interest in downtown real estate before (that I know of).


I mis-typed...  Meant the Harvey Parkway building.

I corrected my post.

----------


## Praedura

> I mis-typed...  Meant the Harvey Parkway building.
> 
> I corrected my post.


Ok. That makes A LOT more sense.

Ever notice how many sound-alike buildings/projects/streets that we have in this town? Yeesh.

----------


## betts

> Can't wait to see if Aubrey is still sitting next to Clay at the Thunder home games ? I have no idea if the seats are Founder or Corporate ?


 I'd bet a lot of money he is.  He owns the team, not Chesapeake.  I just realized when the Chesapeake naming rights contract expires, we might have an AEP Arena.  I'm sure it's galling to him to have to attend games at the Chesapeake Arena.

----------


## LuccaBrasi

> Another 7,000 square feet to be built out for AEP / Arcadia Capital in the Harvey Parkway Building.
> 
> That's now over 51,000 total square feet, more than half the building.
> 
> And over $1.1 million in tenant improvements, including a fitness center, restaurant and exec offices with private bathrooms.


He's just warming up!!

----------


## Praedura

> I'd bet a lot of money he is.  He owns the team, not Chesapeake.  I just realized when the Chesapeake naming rights contract expires, we might have an AEP Arena.  I'm sure it's galling to him to have to attend games at the Chesapeake Arena.


I'd prefer that the name stays the same. 'Chesapeake Energy Arena' is a cool name -- just has a nice ring to it. Plus we can call it "the Peake" as an abbreviation.

'American Energy Partners Arena' just doesn't compare.

----------


## Snowman

> I'd prefer that the name stays the same. 'Chesapeake Energy Arena' is a cool name -- just has a nice ring to it. Plus we can call it "the Peake" as an abbreviation.
> 
> 'American Energy Partners Arena' just doesn't compare.


Unfortunately the days of an arena having good official names there entire life (or majority) seems to have passed, granted there were plenty of mediocre and sad names even before they became branded by current highest bidder, the best it seams you can hope for is you have a decent sponsors name.

----------


## Just the facts

It could be worse, the Sacramento Kings play in Sleep Train Arena.

----------


## PhiAlpha

Talked to a friend over at AEP today about the gym and restaurant. They take up the majority of the 1st floor and have all the quality of their CHK equivalents at +/- 10% the size. They are up to near 100 employees now. Crazy stuff.

----------


## Bellaboo

> I'd bet a lot of money he is.  He owns the team, not Chesapeake.  I just realized when the Chesapeake naming rights contract expires, we might have an AEP Arena.  I'm sure it's galling to him to have to attend games at the Chesapeake Arena.


He was in his normal seat opening night.....you win the bet.

----------


## Pete

> Talked to a friend over at AEP today about the gym and restaurant. They take up the majority of the 1st floor and have all the quality of their CHK equivalents at +/- 10% the size. They are up to near 100 employees now. Crazy stuff.


Hope he keeps blowing & going!

At the current rate, they will soon out-grow the Harvey Parkway.


I assume the restaurant is only for employees?

----------


## HangryHippo

> Hope he keeps blowing & going!
> 
> At the current rate, they will soon out-grow the Harvey Parkway.
> 
> 
> I assume the restaurant is only for employees?


If they continue to add employees, is there other space near the Harvey Parkway to expand to?

----------


## Pete

They have about half that building now and I don't think there is much vacancy.

For that matter, there isn't much Class A vacancy anywhere in OKC.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Hope he keeps blowing & going!
> 
> At the current rate, they will soon out-grow the Harvey Parkway.
> 
> 
> I assume the restaurant is only for employees?


I believe so but not sure, I'll ask.

----------


## jn1780

It will be interesting to see where they will be a couple of years from now after they have actually started drilling shafts into the ground. Hopefully American Energy Partners doesn't turn out to be an "over-hyped movie" with lots of advertising and excitement, but doesn't meet expectations.


Now excuse me while I dive behind the couch before the Audrey fanboys throw fruit at me. lol

----------


## Pete

This is from the Brianna Bailey's (Oklahoman) Twitter feed from a recent Thunder press conference...

Looks like Aubrey's new company is already a sponsor:

----------


## PhiAlpha

They've been sponsoring the starting line up announcement at the beginning of the game and a few other random things as well.

----------


## Bellaboo

They also have their logo displayed on the outside electronic sign on the arena.

----------


## Pete

Just learned the restaurant that Aubrey & Co. are putting into this building is a "Pops Deli".

----------


## Pete

Arcadia Capital / American Energy Partners taking another 7,000 square feet in the Harvey Parkway, this time on the 4th floor.

They now have space on all six floors:

1st Floor (about half):  Deli & Fitness Center
2nd Floor (all):  Offices
3rd Floor (all):  Offices
4th Floor (about half):  Offices
5th Floor (about half):  Offices
6th Floor (about half):  Executive Offices / Private Bathrooms

----------


## Pete

Here's the floorplan for the new Pop's Diner in the Harvey Parkway -- looks like it will be open to the public.

Note the lack of seating inside the restaurant but tables abd chairs in the lobby and outside:

----------


## Mr. Cotter

Interesting.  I wish the Bricktown location had been built instead.  Pop's, at least in Arcadia, is more about the destination than the food.  I can't imagine being in the area, wanting a burger, and going here instead of Tucker's at Classen Curve.

----------


## Pete

This is probably more about their employees having quick access to food so they can keep their noses to the grindstone.   :Smile:

----------


## PhiAlpha

> This is probably more about their employees having quick access to food so they can keep their noses to the grindstone.


Correct, I know a few that are consistently working 60-85 hour weeks...things are moving quickly. I'm with a bunch of their guys up at a convention in Denver. Their booth is similar to chesapeake's...massive. Also they are up to about 130 employees now and have been working to buy everyone else out of the building. I know at least one small energy company that won't sell out but I imagine AEP will occupy all but that small part of the building pretty soon.

----------


## OKVision4U

> If they continue to add employees, is there other space near the Harvey Parkway to expand to?


AEP will continue to grow and fill the Harvey Parkway, ...then they will move to downtown in their new more substantial HQ building.

----------


## Pete

Aubrey McClendon owns a bunch of land at Wilshire & Broadway Extension and has said he plans to build a new campus there.

The OPUBCO land shown in yellow below is now owned by American Fidelity.

----------


## OKVision4U

That would be a good location for a campus style HQ.

----------


## sooner88

Pretty interesting. Didn't expect for this to happen so soon (if at all).

McClendon, Partnership File To Raise up to $2 Billion - WSJ.com

----------


## Just the facts

> Pretty interesting. Didn't expect for this to happen so soon (if at all).
> 
> McClendon, Partnership File To Raise up to $2 Billion - WSJ.com


I didn't think he would do it again either but maybe I was looking at it all wrong.  If he gets booted out again after getting billions apparently he can just go down the road and start over again.  I wonder how many times he could do that.  I guess the oil and gas industry isn't like a lot of other industries where you have build brand identity and generate customer loyalty every time you start over.

----------


## PWitty

> I didn't think he would do it again either but maybe I was looking at it all wrong.  If he gets booted out again after getting billions apparently he can just go down the road and start over again.  I wonder how many time he could do that.


I agree. I'm really surprised by this as well. I figured he would go the private route so he could retain sole ownership of his new company. But I guess if he is trying to grow as fast as it appears, then this may be the only way.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> I agree. I'm really surprised by this as well. I figured he would go the private route so he could retain sole ownership of his new company. But I guess if he is trying to grow as fast as it appears, then this may be the only way.


He isn't actually taking AEP public. AECP sounds like more of a trust type fund similar to what SD did with the Permian and Mississippi trusts to find those operations. At any rate it doesn't sound like American Energy partners will be traded on the public market yet. Everyone I've talked to with AEP has hinted at big things for next year.

But like I said before with both AKM and Tom Ward's companies...no matter what they say now, never say never when it comes to going public.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> AEP will continue to grow and fill the Harvey Parkway, ...then they will move to downtown in their new more substantial HQ building.


They are almost out of space in HP now and they are looking for more room to grow but hell will freeze over before he moves downtown. Having said that, here's to having a snowball fight with the satan in a few years...AEP with a tower downtown would be pretty cool.

----------


## OKVision4U

> I didn't think he would do it again either but maybe I was looking at it all wrong.  If he gets booted out again after getting billions apparently he can just go down the road and start over again.  I wonder how many times he could do that.  I guess the oil and gas industry isn't like a lot of other industries where you have build brand identity and generate customer loyalty every time you start over.


Well, in the energy business, when your name is THE brand, groups line up wanting to hand-out capital.  He is a pioneering guy that rolls the dice in a big way.  ...and that group likes that.

AEP & Tom Wards new one, will do great and in an exploding fashion.

----------


## OKVision4U

> They are almost out of space in HP now and they are looking for more room to grow but hell will freeze over before he moves downtown. Having said that, here's to having a snowball fight with the satan in a few years...AEP with a tower downtown would be pretty cool.


It would not surprise me if there is a Large Tower ( or Twin Towers ) that are placed in the Core to Shore area ( close to river ) ?

----------


## PWitty

> He isn't actually taking AEP public. AECP sounds like more of a trust type fund similar to what SD did with the Permian and Mississippi trusts to find those operations. At any rate it doesn't sound like American Energy partners will be traded on the public market yet. Everyone I've talked to with AEP has hinted at big things for next year.
> 
> But like I said before with both AKM and Tom Ward's companies...no matter what they say now, never say never when it comes to going public.


Yeah, I read a different article this morning that was a lot clearer than the "preview" I could read on the WSJ one from above. There was even a clause in the statement that said that McClendon and the management could do things that weren't in the best interest of the shareholders! The whole thing seems kind of confusing. I wish he would assemble a company that was a little more cut-and-dry without all these confusing clauses so it wouldn't be such a risk for investors. But I guess if in the end it means good job growth and the rise of another O&G company in OKC I can't really complain.

----------


## BoulderSooner

He can go public and still retain total control.   Either with super shares.   Or just retain majority stock ala Harold Hamm

----------


## hoya

I really really wish I had money to invest in this.  My knowledge of public offerings like this is very limited, and my cash reserves even more so.  But when Aubrey starts a company, you can see the potential that exists.

----------


## Pete

While everyone has been fretting about the ~500 Chesapeake layoffs, McClendon has already hired 130 with plenty more on the way.

And of course, Devon, SandRidge, Continental and Enable -- among other energy companies -- have tons of open positions right now.

Looks like those layoffs won't even cause a small ripple in the local economy.

----------


## Just the facts

I am going to go out a limb and say the AM will never locate his business downtown.  I think he is sold on the 'campus' model.

----------


## Bellaboo

> I am going to go out a limb and say the AM will never locate his business downtown.  I think he is sold on the 'campus' model.


I'll agree with you on this, even though I've heard him say he loves downtown and that's one of the reasons he was involved with the boathouse district.

----------


## Just the facts

Lot's of people love downtown - they just don't want to live or work there.  I think this is the group AM is in.

----------


## tomokc

Heaven help the people driving near Wilshire & Broadway a couple of years from now. Traffic around the Chesapeake campus is terrible, made worse by the traffic lights at lightly-used campus entrances on Western & Classen.

----------


## soonerguru

> While everyone has been fretting about the ~500 Chesapeake layoffs, McClendon has already hired 130 with plenty more on the way.
> 
> And of course, Devon, SandRidge, Continental and Enable -- among other energy companies -- have tons of open positions right now.
> 
> Looks like those layoffs won't even cause a small ripple in the local economy.


I thought it was more than 1000 in OKC.

----------


## OKVision4U

> I am going to go out a limb and say the AM will never locate his business downtown.  I think he is sold on the 'campus' model.


I'm just say'n, don't be surprised if you see in 5 years a "twin tower" setting in the Core to Shore / River area.  w/ a small campus setting.  And, this would really be good for that area too.

----------


## Pete

> I thought it was more than 1000 in OKC.




Chesapeake lays off 640 employees in OKC | News OK

----------


## tomokc

> I'm just say'n, don't be surprised if you see in 5 years a "twin tower" setting in the Core to Shore / River area.  w/ a small campus setting.  And, this would really be good for that area too.


OKVision, with AEP/AKM buying land at Wilshire & Broadway (1 mile from current AEP location, 2 miles from CHK, and 2 miles from his house), why would he then buy & build HQ downtown?

----------


## tillyato

> Chesapeake lays off 640 employees in OKC | News OK


I think it's probably somewhere between the two. The 640 number was just on that one Tuesday, there were smaller rounds earlier in the year. The article Pete linked to says "Tuesday's announcement ends the monthslong changes that have led about 1,200 people to leave the company since the first of the year."

----------


## Pete

The 1,200 layoffs were nation wide.

But I think the estimate of somewhere between 500 and 1,000 were laid off in total in OKC.

----------


## Rover

Aubrey knows that most of his higher positioned people he hired at Chesapeake, and now at AEP, prefer to live in Edmond and Nichols Hills and not downtown.  By being at 63rd or Wilshire and the Bway Extn, he could draw from both those areas AND from downtown easily.  Many Edmondites feel being downtown is a hassle, and that the options for their kids' education is better up north with Cassidy, Heritage Hall, Bishop McGuinness, and the Edmond school system.  He tries to locate where his people want to be, not necessarily where it is cool.  At Chesapeake, he then wanted to create the cool neighborhood at and around 63rd and Western.  Locating a business is about more than where there are sidewalks, bike lanes and old looking buidings.

----------


## Pete

Aubrey owns tons of property and none of it is anywhere near downtown, so that should tell you something.

Also, he's stated several times he wants to office close to where he lives (Nichols Hills).

----------


## onthestrip

Ya, if Aubrey personally owns the property along Wilshire then my bet is thats where American Energy Partners would locate. Why would Aubrey move/buy downtown and make someone else rich when AEP can buy Aubrey's own land and make him rich(er).

----------


## Pete

And look where he is officing now.

He could have started his new company anywhere in town.


I've heard that he's told others he has definite plans to build on that Wilshire/Broadway property.

----------


## blangtang

Aubrey McClendon's American Energy Partners said on Monday that it had struck three deals in Ohio's Utica shale region, doubling its holdings there.

The company said it would buy about 130,000 acres in the southern part of the Utica shale...

Ex-Chesapeake CEO's American Energy doubles Utica acreage in Ohio | Reuters

maybe this is common knowledge around these parts

----------


## Spartan

> Aubrey knows that most of his higher positioned people he hired at Chesapeake, and now at AEP, prefer to live in Edmond and Nichols Hills and not downtown.  By being at 63rd or Wilshire and the Bway Extn, he could draw from both those areas AND from downtown easily.  Many Edmondites feel being downtown is a hassle, and that the options for their kids' education is better up north with Cassidy, Heritage Hall, Bishop McGuinness, and the Edmond school system.  He tries to locate where his people want to be, not necessarily where it is cool.  At Chesapeake, he then wanted to create the cool neighborhood at and around 63rd and Western.  Locating a business is about more than where there are sidewalks, bike lanes and old looking buidings.


God forbid that, this is a business.

----------


## LibertyOKC

They are preparing to move employees and some departments to the Atrium Towers on 63rd. Offices are being prepared now and people should be starting to move in the next couple of weeks.

----------


## Pete

American Energy — Utica LLC said Wednesday it has received an additional $1.25 billion in financing, bumping the total raised since October 2013 to $2.9 billion.

American Energy Partners, an affiliate of Oklahoma City-based American Energy Partners LP, boosts offering | News OK

----------


## catch22

Also important to note, they are planning an IPO.

A lot of people have thought he would try to keep this a private company.

----------


## Just the facts

> Also important to note, they are planning an IPO.
> 
> A lot of people have thought he would try to keep this a private company.


I guess if people just keep giving you money what can you do other than take it.

----------


## Pete

I bet we see some construction on Aubrey's Wilshire / Broadway Extension property soon.

They have already maxed out the Harvey Parkway building and are spilling over into the Atrium Towers, 3 miles away.  There just isn't much available Class A office space in NW OKC -- or really anywhere in town.

Ironic they are occupying buildings that Aubrey bought for Chesapeake, then were sold back to others, so he could then in turn lease space.

----------


## catch22

> I guess if people just keep giving you money what can you do other than take it.


People invest in him for a reason. It's high stakes poker, he can either win big or lose big. But a lot of people think he will win big on this one.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> I bet we see some construction on Aubrey's Wilshire / Broadway Extension property soon.
> 
> They have already maxed out the Harvey Parkway building and are spilling over into the Atrium Towers, 3 miles away.  There just isn't much available Class A office space in NW OKC -- or really anywhere in town.
> 
> Ironic they are occupying buildings that Aubrey bought for Chesapeake, then were sold back to others, so he could then in turn lease space.


The old CHK imaging department building on 63rd right west of the tracks doesn't have the imaging department label on it anymore and often seems pretty empty. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up purchasing it.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Also important to note, they are planning an IPO.
> 
> A lot of people have thought he would try to keep this a private company.


It sounds like they are taking American Energy - Utica, LLC public, not the parent company, American Energy Partners, LP. While it may not make that much of difference, I imagine that AKM is being a little smarter with things this time. In the worst case, if it came to a Chesapeake type situation in the future, shareholders could oust him from the Utica group and he wouldn't risk losing control of the parent  company, any other public offerings he creates, and he would still have ownership of the Utica public group on top of that. Let's hope he is smarter with his money this time and doesn't get into a margin call situation (or other bad scenario) like the one that set things in motion for his stepping down at CHK. Judging by how he's setting this up so far, it would appear that he's definitely creating more safe guards.

This is all complete speculation on my part, but it makes sense. Next time I talk to some of my friends over there, I'll see if my theory is correct.

Another slightly funny note, the day AKM's non compete with CHK expired, AEP was flooded with CHK employee resumes. I know they hired between 5 and 10 landmen from CHK within a few weeks of it. Not sure about other disciplines. CHK apparently moved bonuses back to March partially to keep people from trying to jump ship immediately (that's speculation from sources, but I've heard it from more then one). A few more highlights from the budding rivalry: AKM is using his 2.5% working interest in units that he gained from the founders participation program to propose wells to force CHK to either drill another well in the unit or go nonconsent so that AEP can take over CHK's interest in the well until it pays out however many times the operating agreements indicate (usually 200, 300, or 400% in OK). Also AEP purchased a massive booth to be used at oil and gas conventions and at the last few that I've been to, they always locate very closely or right next to CHKs. Then of course there are the AEP "We're Still Hiring" billboards near the major arteries into CHK's campus. It should be fun watching how this continues to shake out as AEP grows.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> I guess if people just keep giving you money what can you do other than take it.


Hence why I said "Never say never" when we discussed the idea of AEP and/or Tapstone going public a while ago. You never know with these guys. It may not be in a conventional fashion, but if they need money, they're going to find it one way or another.

----------


## BillyOcean

> It sounds like they are taking American Energy - Utica, LLC public, not the parent company, American Energy Partners, LP. While it may not make that much of difference, I imagine that AKM is being a little smarter with things this time. In the worst case, if it came to a Chesapeake type situation in the future, shareholders could oust him from the Utica group and he wouldn't risk losing control of the parent  company, any other public offerings he creates, and he would still have ownership of the Utica public group on top of that.


this is correct.  when they take these entities public (seperately), Aubrey will individually choose whether he will be a board member or not (most likely not for the long term at least, if at all).  he wants to avoid the public scrutiny and loss of control that was on dispay at CHK.

----------


## PWitty

> It sounds like they are taking American Energy - Utica, LLC public, not the parent company, American Energy Partners, LP. While it may not make that much of difference, I imagine that AKM is being a little smarter with things this time. In the worst case, if it came to a Chesapeake type situation in the future, shareholders could oust him from the Utica group and he wouldn't risk losing control of the parent  company, any other public offerings he creates, and he would still have ownership of the Utica public group on top of that. Let's hope he is smarter with his money this time and doesn't get into a margin call situation (or other bad scenario) like the one that set things in motion for his stepping down at CHK. Judging by how he's setting this up so far, it would appear that he's definitely creating more safe guards.
> 
> This is all complete speculation on my part, but it makes sense. Next time I talk to some of my friends over there, I'll see if my theory is correct.
> 
> Another slightly funny note, the day AKM's non compete with CHK expired, AEP was flooded with CHK employee resumes. I know they hired between 5 and 10 landmen from CHK within a few weeks of it. Not sure about other disciplines. CHK apparently moved bonuses back to March partially to keep people from trying to jump ship immediately (that's speculation from sources, but I've heard it from more then one). A few more highlights from the budding rivalry: AKM is using his 2.5% working interest in units that he gained from the founders participation program to propose wells to force CHK to either drill another well in the unit or go nonconsent so that AEP can take over CHK's interest in the well until it pays out however many times the operating agreements indicate (usually 200, 300, or 400% in OK). Also AEP purchased a massive booth to be used at oil and gas conventions and at the last few that I've been to, they always locate very closely or right next to CHKs. Then of course there are the AEP "We're Still Hiring" billboards near the major arteries into CHK's campus. It should be fun watching how this continues to shake out as AEP grows.


Yeah, I've heard the bonuses were moved back as well but I believe that the annual compensation rewards will be payed out EVERY March from now on, not just this one time. It's my understanding that it is fairly commonplace to wait until March to payout compensation awards since that is right after the full year company results are released. 

Also, I believe the FWPP allowed Aubrey to "buy in" to certain properties on a well-by-well basis and not a unit-by-unit basis. So even if he had interest in a well that had already been drilled in a given unit, he has no rights/influence on any further wells that are drilled in that unit. I'm no expert on how that program worked, but that was my understanding at least.

I agree though, I think the AEP/CHK rivalry will be fun to watch. It's nothing but good for the city IMO.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Yeah, I've heard the bonuses were moved back as well but I believe that the annual compensation rewards will be payed out EVERY March from now on, not just this one time. It's my understanding that it is fairly commonplace to wait until March to payout compensation awards since that is right after the full year company results are released. 
> 
> Also, I believe the FWPP allowed Aubrey to "buy in" to certain properties on a well-by-well basis and not a unit-by-unit basis. So even if he had interest in a well that had already been drilled in a given unit, he has no rights/influence on any further wells that are drilled in that unit. I'm no expert on how that program worked, but that was my understanding at least.
> 
> I agree though, I think the AEP/CHK rivalry will be fun to watch. It's nothing but good for the city IMO.


You're right on the bonus deal, I forgot that that was when mine were paid as well. Though I believe AKM did recieve a 2.5% interest in every unit, not just per well. That's according to one of my former coworkers that now works for AEP that is doing the CHK prodding in every unit that AKM has that 2.5% interest in. I could've misunderstood him though, prior to that conversation, I thought it was on a well by well basis too.

----------


## PWitty

> You're right on the bonus deal, I forgot that that was when mine were paid as well. Though I believe AKM did recieve a 2.5% interest in every unit, not just per well. That's according to one of my former coworkers that now works for AEP that is doing the CHK prodding in every unit that AKM has that 2.5% interest in. I could've misunderstood him though, prior to that conversation, I thought it was on a well by well basis too.


Hmm, you're probably right then. Like I said I'm no expert on that whole thing, but it sounds like your buddy is!

----------


## metro

> They are preparing to move employees and some departments to the Atrium Towers on 63rd. Offices are being prepared now and people should be starting to move in the next couple of weeks.


LOL, not only that, but they ripped out all the fixtures in the building and just did/are remodeling it. They were giving most of the cabinets/fixtures away for free; unfortunately I found out to late : ) .   FYI When Aubrey was there, they JUST finished remodeling the building for MILLIONS and finished about a year ago. Rumor has it, he didn't want his new company to have the same decor as Chesapeake. I kid you not.

----------


## catch22

> It sounds like they are taking American Energy - Utica, LLC public, not the parent company, American Energy Partners, LP. While it may not make that much of difference, I imagine that AKM is being a little smarter with things this time. In the worst case, if it came to a Chesapeake type situation in the future, shareholders could oust him from the Utica group and he wouldn't risk losing control of the parent  company, any other public offerings he creates, and he would still have ownership of the Utica public group on top of that. Let's hope he is smarter with his money this time and doesn't get into a margin call situation (or other bad scenario) like the one that set things in motion for his stepping down at CHK. Judging by how he's setting this up so far, it would appear that he's definitely creating more safe guards.
> 
> This is all complete speculation on my part, but it makes sense. Next time I talk to some of my friends over there, I'll see if my theory is correct.
> 
> Another slightly funny note, the day AKM's non compete with CHK expired, AEP was flooded with CHK employee resumes. I know they hired between 5 and 10 landmen from CHK within a few weeks of it. Not sure about other disciplines. CHK apparently moved bonuses back to March partially to keep people from trying to jump ship immediately (that's speculation from sources, but I've heard it from more then one). A few more highlights from the budding rivalry: AKM is using his 2.5% working interest in units that he gained from the founders participation program to propose wells to force CHK to either drill another well in the unit or go nonconsent so that AEP can take over CHK's interest in the well until it pays out however many times the operating agreements indicate (usually 200, 300, or 400% in OK). Also AEP purchased a massive booth to be used at oil and gas conventions and at the last few that I've been to, they always locate very closely or right next to CHKs. Then of course there are the AEP "We're Still Hiring" billboards near the major arteries into CHK's campus. It should be fun watching how this continues to shake out as AEP grows.


Thanks for the explanation and detail. He definitely knows how to play the game.

----------


## Urbanized

Cracks me up to think back to all of the posters who were suggesting Aubrey was going to slink off into retirement with his tail between his legs after being ousted at CHK. Like any winner, the guy has also lost a few. But I predicted people would be lining up to give him money and I was right. If you look at the entirety of what he's done over the past 25 years you'd be crazy not to bet on him.

----------


## hoya

> Cracks me up to think back to all of the posters who were suggesting Aubrey was going to slink off into retirement with his tail between his legs after being ousted at CHK. Like any winner, the guy has also lost a few. But I predicted people would be lining up to give him money and I was right. If you look at the entirety of what he's done over the past 25 years you'd be crazy not to bet on him.


If I had any significant amount of money to invest, I'd be getting in on AEP as quickly as possible.

I just don't think Aubrey needs my $47.36 very badly.

----------


## Pete

> Cracks me up to think back to all of the posters who were suggesting Aubrey was going to slink off into retirement with his tail between his legs after being ousted at CHK. Like any winner, the guy has also lost a few. But I predicted people would be lining up to give him money and I was right. If you look at the entirety of what he's done over the past 25 years you'd be crazy not to bet on him.


I can't recall anyone saying this.

I think most everyone thought he would reemerge.

----------


## Bellaboo

AEP buying into north central Oklahoma field - Woodford & Misspssippi plays.

McClendon's company eyes Oklahoma acreage | News OK

----------


## PhiAlpha

> AEP buying into north central Oklahoma field - Woodford & Misspssippi plays.
> 
> McClendon's company eyes Oklahoma acreage | News OK


Jesus, that was out of left field.

----------


## Urbanized

> I can't recall anyone saying this.
> 
> I think most everyone thought he would reemerge.


Hmmm, well you're a better archivist than I am, but I guess I will dive into the posts surrounding the time when he was ousted and try to find them. I am more than certain several people made comments to that effect, as if it were a foregone conclusion that he was done. And they weren't even necessarily ugly comments; just seemed to indicate a misunderstanding of how the world works. Enough people liked my post that I'm pretty sure at least some of them remember the same comments.

----------


## Pete

There were negative comments about Aubrey -- and well justified by the actions of the shareholders and new board -- but I don't think anyone thought his career was completely over.

And even if there were, the huge majority were hoping he'd come back strong and build another energy giant with lots of jobs for OKC.  Same with Tom Ward.

----------


## Urbanized

Again, there is zero question in my mind that such comments were made, as I know I responded to them. I just need to find them when I have time to look. I do agree with you though that the majority were suggesting he would re-emerge. It just struck me at the time that some people could be so oblivious to the way things work.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Hmm, you're probably right then. Like I said I'm no expert on that whole thing, but it sounds like your buddy is!


Here's something on it that came out today, funny stuff.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK) news: Report: McClendon trying to force Chesapeake to drill wells it doesn't want - Seeking Alpha

----------


## OKVision4U

AEP will be a dominate player in the very near future ( <2 years).  Aubrey M. is the guy the industry needs out front and Oklahoma will benefit ( just like it did before w/ CHK ).  He makes things happen and he cares for our city & state.

I wish we had 5 more just like him.  AEP, Still Hiring. That is the sign we need all over Oklahoma!

----------


## Pete

A friend of mine just took a job at AEP and he is completely stoked.

They are blowing and going and everyone there is expecting great things.

Among other skills, Aubrey certainly knows how to motivate employees.

----------


## Bellaboo

Some day we'll see 'American Energy Partners Arena'.....

----------


## betts

> Some day we'll see 'American Energy Partners Arena'.....


I suspect the next time the naming rights contract is up for bid.  AEP Arena?  Pronounced Ape, I fear.

----------


## Snowman

> I suspect the next time the naming rights contract is up for bid.  AEP Arena?  Pronounced Ape, I fear.


I could see it easier with American Energy in large font and Partners in smaller font

----------


## Pete

They currently have 83 (!!) open positions listed on their website:

Careers | American Energy Partners

----------


## Pete

Man On Fire: Aubrey McClendon Raises Billions To Finance His Redemption - Forbes

Like a man on fire, Aubrey McClendon is working feverishly to orchestrate a comeback for the ages. In the past six months McClendon, through his American Energy Partners, has raised $4.1 billion in investor capital and gobbled up hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Ohio and Oklahoma.


McClendon, the ousted founder of Chesapeake Energy CHK -1.2%, launched American Energy last fall with a $1.25 billion equity infusion from Energy & Minerals Group and First Reserve. He’s also secured $950 million in loans from GSO, the credit arm of Blackstone Group. In late January American Energy added $500 million in equity to acquire non-operated oil and gas interests. And earlier this month McClendon raised $750 million in a convertible bond offering (at a 3.5% yield) that promises its buyers a 15% equity stake in American Energy when (and if) McClendon takes it public.

This week McClendon topped off his remarkable fundraising run with another capital injection: $500 million in equity and $180 million in bank loans to buy up 120,000 acres in the Woodford shale and Mississippi Lime plays of Oklahoma.

All told, this amounts to $4.1 billion that investors have entrusted with McClendon.

But wait, there’s more. McClendon has hooked up with the real estate investors behind American Realty Capital to form what’s essentially a real estate investment trust dedicated to buying oil and gas properties. McClendon will be paid a fee to manage the acquisitions of the trust — called American Energy Capital Partners — which has filed to raise as much as $2 billion. As Forbes contributor Richard Finger and I have spelled out in detail, an investor would have to be stupid to buy into this blind pool trust. Yet thanks to the cult of Aubrey, the offering will probably end up oversubscribed.

Most of McClendon’s efforts have been focused on the Utica shale play of Ohio. Last fall he acquired acreage from Enervest and a Shell Oil affiliate. A month ago he acquired 74,000 acres from Hess HES -0.69% Corp. for $924 million. And in early February he made a deal with ExxonMobil to drill on 56,000 acres the company controls in Ohio. He now has roughly 260,000 acres in the Utica, where he reportedly intends to have 11 drilling rigs running by the end of this year and 30 by 2018.

If his acreage in the Utica turns out to be anywhere near the play’s sweet spots, McClendon could soon be heading for an IPO, following on the heels of Antero Resources and Rice Energy, which went public in October and January with similar sized acreage holdings. Antero already boasts a market capitalization of $15 billion, while Rice is at $3 billion. McClendon will need American Energy Partners’ equity to fetch a valuation of $5 billion in order to generate a return for his convertible bond investors.


Amid all his fundraising, McClendon has even squeezed in time to pester the gang back at Chesapeake Energy. As you’ll recall, a key perk that McClendon enjoyed at Chesapeake was the 2.5% interest that he was personally given in every single one of the thousands of wells the company drilled. It’s against these well interests that McClendon borrowed heavily to the tune of $800 million. As part of his severance package, McClendon is still participating in Chesapeake’s wells until June 30.

Not one to be a quiet minority stakeholder, McClendon (as revealed by Reuters this week) has been agitating Chesapeake to drill more wells on acreage in the Haynesville shale of Louisiana. The company that manages his oil and gas interests, called Larchmont Resources, even went to far as to request that Louisiana regulators order Chesapeake to drill 12 wells, on the grounds that doing so will benefit the state as well as landowners. Reuters reported that the request is not only unusual, but may be without precedent, coming from a party with such a small stake in the acreage. An attorney for Chesapeake said at a hearing that McClendon shouldn’t be able to force the company “to drill wells it doesn’t want to drill.”

What’s ironic is that when I interviewed McClendon and his Chesapeake team in 2011 for my Forbes Magazine cover story, then-Chief Operating Officer Steve Dixon told me that they were pulling all their rigs out of the Haynesville and probably wouldn’t go back in there for five years because they had so many higher-returning opportunities to drill around the country.

Naturally, there’s sweet spots in every play, and Chesapeake is known to have the best acreage in the Haynesville, which is likely quite profitable to drill at today’s gas prices. And it would be especially profitable for McClendon, who would only have to put up his pro-rated 2.5% of drilling costs, but not have to shoulder any of Chesapeake’s burden of having forked out hundreds of millions more to acquire leases on all the less sweet acreage.

----------


## Pete

> They are preparing to move employees and some departments to the Atrium Towers on 63rd. Offices are being prepared now and people should be starting to move in the next couple of weeks.


$300K building permit today to remodel office space at Atrium Towers, as predicted.  It's by James Pickel who does all of the contract work for Aubrey.


Funny how Aubrey bought these buildings for Chesapeake (Harvey Parkway and Atrium Towers), Chesapeake sold them after he left, and now he's moving his new company into them.

----------


## warreng88

Not an AEG or Chesapeake thing, but it looks like the Blue Cross/Blue Shield building across the highway from the Atrium towers is going to get a new coat of paint soon. Nothing too exciting but it will look better.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> $300K building permit today to remodel office space at Atrium Towers, as predicted.  It's by James Pickel who does all of the contract work for Aubrey.
> 
> 
> Funny how Aubrey bought these buildings for Chesapeake (Harvey Parkway and Atrium Towers), Chesapeake sold them after he left, and now he's moving his new company into them.


Not to mention that he renovated them while at CHK and is now doing so again not 2 years later.

----------


## John

> Not to mention that he renovated them while at CHK and is now doing so again not 2 years later.


The south tower was renovated fully, but work was stopped on the north tower and it didn't receive the full treatment.

----------


## Pete

> The south tower was renovated fully, but work was stopped on the north tower and it didn't receive the full treatment.


The new permit was for the south tower, which CHK pumped $2.9 million into after purchasing.

----------


## Bellaboo

Was digging around in the 'permits to drill' and found this up in Payne County near Stillwater -

http://imaging.occeweb.com/OG/Well%2...s/1DD1CCEE.pdf

This is about 3 miles directly south of Stillwater - Woodford Shale play

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Was digging around in the 'permits to drill' and found this up in Payne County near Stillwater -
> 
> http://imaging.occeweb.com/OG/Well%2...s/1DD1CCEE.pdf
> 
> This is about 3 miles directly south of Stillwater - Woodford Shale play


That was quick.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

----------


## ou48A

Has there been any talk of an IPO yet?

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Has there been any talk of an IPO yet?


There has been talk of one for AEP-Utica specifically, but that is it so far.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

----------


## OklahomaNick

This is somewhat related to this thread:

Has anyone seen the clearing/tree work being done to Aubrey's land just south of the NewsOK/American Fidelity property on Broadway Ext & Wilshire?

Just wondered why they are clearing it..

----------


## LuccaBrasi

Yep. There's been a slow, but steady movement over there for a while now, ie, clearing, enhanced manicuring, etc.

----------


## Pete

But no building permits or PUD's of any type.

That is probably coming soon.

----------


## blangtang

Exclusive: Ex-Chesapeake CEO near deal for Enduring Resources - sources

(Reuters) - Former Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK.N) CEO Aubrey McClendon is leading an investor group set to buy Enduring Resources LLC in a deal that could value the oil and natural gas producer at more than $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Exclusive: Ex-Chesapeake CEO near deal for Enduring Resources - sources | Reuters

----------


## Pete

Holy crap, Aubrey isn't messing around.

If this deal goes through, that would put their assets at about $6 billion.

----------


## Plutonic Panda

Aubrey McClendon's company adds former Chesapeake, Devon execs | News OK

----------


## PhiAlpha

They also recently started a Permian group, so it appears they are serious about expanding their position in West Texas or at least are close to finalizing the deal with Enduring Resources who's primary operations are located there.

----------


## Plutonic Panda

American Energy Partners spending $4B to acquire new acreage | News OK

----------


## Bellaboo

American Energy to form new midstream company - 

McClendon's American Energy forming midstream company | News OK

----------


## Pete

Another day, another AEP venture!

Amazing.

----------


## Rover

So, I guess AEP will continue to build back what Chesapeake sells off in OKC.  Glad Aubrey is loyal to OKC.

----------


## Pete

^

CHK seems to be completely stable and even moving forward now.


This has turned out to be the best type of win/win for OKC.

Next up:  Aubrey returns to real estate development.  You know it's coming!

----------


## Just the facts

> Next up:  Aubrey returns to real estate development.  You know it's coming!


I like AM but man I hope he doesn't get back into real estate (unless he wants to hire me as Chief Visionary).

----------


## Pete

^

He has a new architect this time around and I've sure he's learned a thing or two himself.

----------


## HangryHippo

> ^
> 
> He has a new architect this time around and I've sure he's learned a thing or two himself.


Who's his architect this time around?  Did he have a falling out with Rand?

----------


## adaniel

> American Energy to form new midstream company - 
> 
> McClendon's American Energy forming midstream company | News OK


This is why I was really not that worried about the Williams/Access deal, which will probably only result in a minimal amount of transfers anyway. There's still a lot of opportunity to be had in this industry.

----------


## Pete

> Who's his architect this time around?  Did he have a falling out with Rand?


Don't want to reveal the new architect at this point and I'm sure Rand will still be involved.

Rand has done the interiors for their office space at the Harvey Parkway and Atrium Towers.

----------


## HangryHippo

> Don't want to reveal the new architect at this point and I'm sure Rand will still be involved.
> 
> Rand has done the interiors for their office space at the Harvey Parkway and Atrium Towers.


Well, just as a guess, I wonder if it could be Brian Fitzsimmons.  He's doing some modern stuff and it seems like Aubrey likes that look.

Also, what kind of timeline are we looking at with AEP building on Aubrey's land by OPUBCO?  They're bursting at the seams currently aren't they?

----------


## Pete

^
Brian and his firm do great work, but it's not them.

Let's please not put me in a position to have to refute guesses, as I don't want people to run with "OKCTalk is saying...".


I'll post the info when the time is right.

----------


## HangryHippo

> ^
> Brian and his firm do great work, but it's not them.
> 
> Let's please not put me in a position to have to refute guesses, as I don't want people to run with "OKCTalk is saying...".
> 
> 
> I'll post the info when the time is right.


I needed documentation so I can sing my praises when I guess correctly!   :Stick Out Tongue: 

I kid, I kid - just thinking out loud, Pete.

----------


## blangtang

I just got around to reading this (a couple weeks dated) but found this tidbit interesting:

Aubrey McClendon Stages Comeback

Wildcatter Aubrey McClendon has been all but absent from the public eye since his ouster as chief executive of Chesapeake Energy Corp. CHK -1.61% last year. Now he is easing back into the spotlight.

Mr. McClendon, whose flair made him a fixture at the energy industry's marquee events, is working feverishly to build a new energy empire, raising $10 billion in the last nine months for his American Energy Partners LP. On Wednesday, he joined the head of the Environmental Protection Agency and the governor of Delaware at a Goldman Sachs energy conference in Manhattan.

The executive's appearance at the event marked a re-emergence after a quiet period. Just over a year ago, Mr. McClendon was shown the door at Chesapeake, the company he co-founded and built into the nation's second-biggest natural-gas producer, behind Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM -0.11% Regarded by many as a visionary early to grasp the potential of American shale, Mr. McClendon eventually lost favor with Chesapeake's largest shareholders because of his aggressive spending, appetite for risk and mingling his personal finances with the company's drilling.

Mr. McClendon has kicked off his second act with characteristic speed and billion-dollar purchases, setting up shop less than a mile from Chesapeake's headquarters in Oklahoma City. American Energy Partners on Monday said it had snapped up oil and gas holdings from West Virginia to West Texas for $4.25 billion: about $1 billion shy of Chesapeake's capital-spending budget for this year.

"I represent an industry which today is the largest producer of natural gas in the world," a low-key Mr. McClendon said at Wednesday's conference. Wearing a bright-pink necktie, his long white hair tucked behind his ears, he held forth on a favorite subject: the economic and environmental benefits of natural gas.

The U.S. drilling boom has catapulted the country ahead of Russia on the natural-gas leaderboard, thanks in part to the prowess of companies like Chesapeake at wringing the fuel from shale-rock formations through hydraulic fracturing and other techniques.

Mr. McClendon acknowledged that the industry has made mistakes, including poor construction that led to leaky wells. But he argued against the more muscular regulation that is under consideration as the EPA and some states study the environmental impacts of fracking.

"We have such powerful internal motivation to get things right that we can fix things on the fly pretty quickly without, frankly, heavy-handed approaches to our problems," he said.

American Energy Partners is bulking up in some of the areas that Chesapeake pioneered. But this time around, Mr. McClendon is running five closely held affiliates, each focused on drilling in distinct locations.

The approach offers an appeal similar to fantasy baseball, allowing investors to bet on their favorite oil and gas fields, from Ohio's rust belt to the red-hot Permian Basin in Texas. For now, the various units are owned by a few big investors each, with investment firm Energy & Minerals Group in Houston putting up the most cash.

Mr. McClendon hasn't made clear whether he intends to take American Energy or any of its affiliates public. The unit focused in Ohio, American Energy—Utica LLC, in April sold debt that would convert into shares with a public offering. The deal implied a value of $5 billion for the venture.

For now, American Energy's financing arrangements aren't public. Some analysts question whether the terms are as onerous as deals Chesapeake struck under Mr. McClendon, which raised cash but saddled the company with a huge debt load and expensive requirements to drill.

The new company's frenzied pace of spending on oil and gas leases has prompted some analysts to question whether the company is moving too quickly. "Are you optimizing what you hold? That's the name of the game right now," said Mark Hanson, a Morningstar Inc. analyst.

The company and Mr. McClendon declined to comment for this article.

Mr. McClendon hasn't lost his appetite for complexity. In addition to American Energy Partners, he is managing operations for a separate energy outfit with a similar name: American Energy Capital Partners LP. The company is backed by real-estate investors who have hired Mr. McClendon to acquire interests in oil and gas properties. Mr. McClendon receives a percentage of such deals, including purchases from companies he runs.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March sought expanded disclosures from American Energy Capital Partners about potential conflicts of interest. *The regulator also demanded that the firm delete a passage from Mr. McClendon's biography that referred to his "long history as a successful manager."

"The biography should be limited to factual information, not evaluative statements,"* the SEC wrote in March.

The company made the change.

Aubrey McClendon Launches His Post-Chesapeake Comeback - WSJ
===

Brutal!

----------


## Edgar

oh my, McClendon is hiring architects again. Doesn't he have a lake resort he needs to finish.

----------


## warreng88

> oh my, McClendon is hiring architects again. Doesn't he have a lake resort he needs to finish.


Nope, that is all on Mark Fischer or will be in the future.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> Nope, that is all on Mark Fischer or will be in the future.


Yes and while He and his son Scott have run into a lot of issues that have slowed them down... it's hard to argue that they haven't completely botched that deal. That's a shame too because it looked like it was going to be really cool if completed as originally planned.

----------


## warreng88

> Yes and while He and his son Scott have run into a lot of issues that have slowed them down... it's hard to argue that they haven't completely botched that deal. That's a shame too because it looked like it was going to be really cool if completed as originally planned.


My understanding is they are working on relocating four holes of the golf course to make for better waterfront for residential development. They should have lots ready to sell within two years. After that, they will work on getting a four star hotel there and other amenities. Just getting the golf course holes moved is a big deal and will cost some coin but will pay off in the long run because that will be more acreage they can sell at higher prices for homes.

Now, back to topic!

----------


## Urbanized

His hiring strategy has always been pretty consistent. He likes to hire bright YOUNG people (often fresh out of college) and work the dog out of them. They are paid a nice wage, but it still tends to be low to middle for the industry, and he makes up for this through quality-of-life and living expense perks such as child care, workout facilities, rowing club privileges, and artificially-low-priced, chef-prepared high-end meals.

The economy of scale allows his companies to buy these things for much lower than an individual can, and by passing these quality amenities along to the employees it makes it somewhat irrelevant that they aren't necessarily being paid the highest wages in the segment (not saying in any way that they are poorly-paid).

If they like the work and environment and manage to distinguish themselves under that model, they can stay for year (or an entire career, I suppose, and will end up making lots of money. If, on the other hand, they would prefer not to be driven like mules (not a statement on ability, only preference), they move on to one of the other companies in town.

At least that is how I understand it from friends who have have worked there.

----------


## PhiAlpha

> His hiring strategy has always been pretty consistent. He likes to hire bright YOUNG people (often fresh out of college) and work the dog out of them. They are paid a nice wage, but it still tends to be low to middle for the industry, and he makes up for this through quality-of-life and living expense perks such as child care, workout facilities, rowing club privileges, and artificially-low-priced, chef-prepared high-end meals.
> 
> The economy of scale allows his companies to buy these things for much lower than an individual can, and by passing these quality amenities along to the employees it makes it somewhat irrelevant that they aren't necessarily being paid the highest wages in the segment (not saying in any way that they are poorly-paid).
> 
> If they like the work and environment and manage to distinguish themselves under that model, they can stay for year (or an entire career, I suppose, and will end up making lots of money. If, on the other hand, they would prefer not to be driven like mules (not a statement on ability, only preference), they move on to one of the other companies in town.
> 
> At least that is how I understand it from friends who have have worked there.


Pretty accurate except that, at least from everyone I've known at CHK over the years mainly in Land, CHK paid salaries that were on target with or in many cases far, far above the industry average. This is how they were able to raid so many companies around town for talent and recruit basically whoever they wanted out of school.  They also gave 2 bonuses a year, generous raises, and great benefits in addition to the corporate amenities. You have to work like crazy for it, there is a potentially to be pigeonholed, and politics/favoritism certainly played a roll in being able to move up, but their employees were very well taken care of. Those things have all leveled off since Aubrey left, but CHK is still a very desirable place to work. I know several people that survived the purge and a few that have started there recently. 

AEP isn't paying as excessively as CHK was back then but they still are paying at or above the industry average. They are taking people from companies all over OKC, but the primary victims so far have been Chesapeake and Chaparral. 

Also Aubrey tends to like to vertically integrate his companies(or at least he did at CHK) and it appears that he's starting to do that at AEP starting with the midstream sector. 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

----------


## BG918

I knew two different kinds of people that worked in land for CHK.  One worked a fairly normal work week of 40-45 hours before the Purge, and now is closer to 50 hours with some weeks approaching 60.  The other one was in a group that was essentially waiting for drilling to occur in the Utica and maybe "worked" 20 hours a week for over a year, and still got salary bonuses.  He and everyone else in his group were part of the Purge last November.  He doesn't but most of those people now work for AEP..

----------


## PhiAlpha

> I knew two different kinds of people that worked in land for CHK.  One worked a fairly normal work week of 40-45 hours before the Purge, and now is closer to 50 hours with some weeks approaching 60.  The other one was in a group that was essentially waiting for drilling to occur in the Utica and maybe "worked" 20 hours a week for over a year, and still got salary bonuses.  He and everyone else in his group were part of the Purge last November.  He doesn't but most of those people now work for AEP..


Yes, this is very true.

----------


## Pete

AEP has applied for quality job incentives.

Reported 425 jobs in July, 100 open positions on their website and incentive plan calls for adding 525 more over the next 10 years (which is likely very conservative):

American Energy Partners affiliate qualifies for millions in job creation incentives from state | News OK

----------


## Pete

AEP has applied for quality job incentives.

Reported 425 jobs in July, 100 open positions on their website and incentive plan calls for adding 525 more over the next 10 years (which is likely very conservative):

American Energy Partners affiliate qualifies for millions in job creation incentives from state | News OK

----------


## zookeeper

> AEP has applied for quality job incentives.
> 
> Reported 425 jobs in July, 100 open positions on their website and incentive plan calls for adding 525 more over the next 10 years (which is likely very conservative):
> 
> American Energy Partners affiliate qualifies for millions in job creation incentives from state | News OK


Here's the Oklahoma Energy Today report. Outrageous on the old Chesapeake levels. Unbelievable.
Aubrey McClendon's Company Gets State Financial Help | OK Energy Today

Especially when you consider this gem:

"Just three months ago, AEP announced $4.25 billion in acquisitions  including the $2.5 billion purchase of Denver-based Enduring Resources."

----------


## zookeeper

Just a bump for those that missed the story over the long Labor Day weekend.

----------


## onthestrip

$26,779,000 for 525 jobs comes out to *$51,000 per job.* When are we going to get an independent study to see if this is actually worth it? It used to be for out of state companies looking to relocate here, now its for anyone medium to large sized employer that can already be headquartered here. So much for red-state, free market principles. 

With AEP's free money and the other few companies, this go round on Quality Jobs money has hit over $36million. Its also nearing a billion dollars paid out since the start of this program. That could pay for a lot of quality of life upgrades for this state, ones that would lure companies, rather than just unnecessarily subsidizing their growth.

----------


## Bellaboo

> $26,779,000 for 525 jobs comes out to *$51,000 per job.* When are we going to get an independent study to see if this is actually worth it? It used to be for out of state companies looking to relocate here, now its for anyone medium to large sized employer that can already be headquartered here. So much for red-state, free market principles. 
> 
> With AEP's free money and the other few companies, this go round on Quality Jobs money has hit over $36million. Its also nearing a billion dollars paid out since the start of this program. That could pay for a lot of quality of life upgrades for this state, ones that would lure companies, rather than just unnecessarily subsidizing their growth.


I think you are reading this completely wrong. My wife does quality jobs reporting with the state for her company, and I know there are 3 different programs which also include rural employment. She said the max you can receive is 5% off of payroll taxes. 
This statement is from the article - I believe it will be 5% of the expansion of 26 million, not 26 million. Big difference.

Here is the statement from the article -
'Under the Quality Jobs Program, AEP will get quarterly cash payments of up to 5 percent of new taxable payroll directly to the company.'

The way this works, AEP will pay the payroll taxes to the state, then get a rebate. It's not like money is given to them out of thin air.

This means they will get up to $1,339,000 in rebates over several years that this employment level is maintained, and this is NOT $51,000 per job.

----------


## onthestrip

> I think you are reading this completely wrong. My wife does quality jobs reporting with the state for her company, and I know there are 3 different programs which also include rural employment. She said the max you can receive is 5% off of payroll taxes. 
> This statement is from the article - I believe it will be 5% of the expansion of 26 million, not 26 million. Big difference.
> 
> Here is the statement from the article -
> 'Under the Quality Jobs Program, AEP will get quarterly cash payments of up to 5 percent of new taxable payroll directly to the company.'
> 
> The way this works, AEP will pay the payroll taxes to the state, then get a rebate. It's not like money is given to them out of thin air.
> 
> This means they will get up to $1,339,000 in rebates over several years that this employment level is maintained, and this is NOT $51,000 per job.


Then why does it say that they will receive $26mil in payments? 



> An affiliate of Aubrey McClendon’s America Energy Partners LP has qualified for up to $26.7 million in job creation payments over the next 10 years from Oklahoma through the state’s Quality Jobs Program.


This article and what you say arent adding up.

----------


## Bellaboo

> *Then why does it say that they will receive $26mil in payments*? 
> 
> This article and what you say arent adding up.


It doesn't say that. Their projected salary for the new employees over X amount of years is 26.7 million. They will receive up to a 5% payroll tax rebate on 26.7 million. It's a rebate on money that they will have already paid in. I think the article didn't explain that too well. Blame those responsible for the article, not AEP or the incentive program.

I don't think what you're thinking is adding up.

----------


## zookeeper

> It doesn't say that. Their projected salary for the new employees over X amount of years is 26.7 million. They will receive up to a 5% payroll tax rebate on 26.7 million. It's a rebate on money that they will have already paid in. I think the article didn't explain that too well. Blame those responsible for the article, not AEP or the incentive program.
> 
> I don't think what you're thinking is adding up.


I think if Mr. McClendon can go on the spending spree he has of late - into the billions of dollars - he doesn't need a single dime of what he should be paying in payroll tax to be returned to him by way of a rebate. In any world based in reality this would be absurd. In Oklahoma, it's just "bidness."

----------


## gopokes88

> I think if Mr. McClendon can go on the spending spree he has of late - into the billions of dollars - he doesn't need a single dime of what he should be paying in payroll tax to be returned to him by way of a rebate. In any world based in reality this would be absurd. In Oklahoma, it's just "bidness."


What world is that? Every single state has programs like this.

----------


## metro

> I think if Mr. McClendon can go on the spending spree he has of late - into the billions of dollars - he doesn't need a single dime of what he should be paying in payroll tax to be returned to him by way of a rebate. In any world based in reality this would be absurd. In Oklahoma, it's just "bidness."


And by Oklahoma, we assume you mean America. Sadly, this has become the status quo.

----------


## Bellaboo

> I think if Mr. McClendon can go on the spending spree he has of late - into the billions of dollars - he doesn't need a single dime of what he should be paying in payroll tax to be returned to him by way of a rebate.* In any world based in reality this would be absurd. In Oklahoma, it's just "bidness*."


In the real world out there, 'It's just bidness' , everywhere. I sincerely doubt Oklahoma invented the business incentive programs.

----------


## Urbanized

No, but our neighbor to the south all but perfected it, and kicked our asses for decades in regards to business and job growth before we got wise and started trying to play by the same rules.

----------


## Rover

> And by Oklahoma, we assume you mean America. Sadly, this has become the status quo.


Anyone who thinks that other countries do not incentivize is either ignorant of real world, or they are trying to deny reality to prove a point. Having worked three decades in international business, I can tell you that our government subsidies don't even compare.  Where companies aren't incentivized/subsidized to compete it is because the companies are owned/run by the government.

----------


## ylouder

> Anyone who thinks that other countries do not incentivize is either ignorant of real world, or they are trying to deny reality to prove a point.


While i don't disagree - i think its good that people take a step back and fully comprehend how messed up this system is.

Much like the 2 percent tax rate that was passed for oil and gas drilling while you and I as every day citizens pay a much higher rate.

I get it life isn't fair and never has been, but some of the things that we all get volunteered to pay for are so ridiculous and 1 sided its mind boggling. The only real word for it is corruption.

----------


## Pete

Clearly, some incentives make sense.  However, there needs to be a clear cause and effect established in these programs.

It seems in many cases millions are being paid to companies for doing things they had already planned to do.

And since we are talking about tax dollars, you have to consider the opportunity cost.  For example, might this money be better spent on education rather than continuing to cut in that area while providing these corporate hand-outs?

----------


## onthestrip

> Clearly, some incentives make sense.  However, there needs to be a clear cause and effect established in these programs.
> 
> It seems in many cases millions are being paid to companies for doing things they had already planned to do.
> 
> And since we are talking about tax dollars, you have to consider the opportunity cost.  For example, might this money be better spent on education rather than continuing to cut in that area while providing these corporate hand-outs?


This is exactly my problems with it. We dont know the cause and effect (studies to know if they make financial sense), most of these now are given to companies that are already here and werent going anywhere (McClendon has been an OKC guy his whole life, he wasnt going to move AEP across state lines), and is this money better off elsewhere (Quality Jobs Program has paid out almost a billion dollars now, that'd do some major quality of life upgrades).

----------


## Rover

> This is exactly my problems with it. We dont know the cause and effect (studies to know if they make financial sense), most of these now are given to companies that are already here and werent going anywhere (McClendon has been an OKC guy his whole life, he wasnt going to move AEP across state lines), and is this money better off elsewhere (Quality Jobs Program has paid out almost a billion dollars now, that'd do some major quality of life upgrades).


Ah, how quickly we forget about all the companies that have left here in the past.  Just because someone is here doesn't mean they will always be here.  Taking companies for granted is one way to lose them.  This is one of the great problems with companies too...they give the best deals to prospective clients instead of rewarding clients who have stuck with them and increased their business.

----------


## bchris02

> Ah, how quickly we forget about all the companies that have left here in the past.  Just because someone is here doesn't mean they will always be here.  Taking companies for granted is one way to lose them.  This is one of the great problems with companies too...they give the best deals to prospective clients instead of rewarding clients who have stuck with them and increased their business.


Great point.  Sometimes giving incentives to companies already here has the intangible benefit of keeping them here.  There are other cities that would love to have American Energy Partners.  Whoever made the point about Tulsa once being the O&G capital and then everything moved to Houston was spot on.

----------


## Plutonic Panda

American Energy hires former Chesapeake executive | News OK

----------


## Plutonic Panda

American Energy Partners secures $500 million for mineral acquisitions | News OK

----------


## PhiAlpha

> American Energy Partners secures $500 million for mineral acquisitions | News OK


So about that private equity drying up due to fear of falling oil prices...

----------


## gopokes88

> So about that private equity drying up due to fear of falling oil prices...


If anything more is available IF the equity is willing to risk it. Minerals just got a whole lot cheaper to lease.

----------


## ljbab728

Aubrey is still wheeling and dealing.

American Energy subsidiaries to merge in Appalachia | News OK




> American Energy Partners LP announced Monday it is creating one of the largest pure-play exploration and production companies in the Appalachia region by combining two of its affiliates in an all-stock transaction.
> 
> 
> 
> American Energy-Utica LLC and American Energy-Marcellus LLC will merge into one company with more than 300,000 net acres in the natural gas-rich Utica and Marcellus shales in eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia.
> 
> McClendon organized the company’s affiliates into play-specific ventures to make them more attractive to investors. He has raised more than $16 billion since forming his new company.

----------


## Pete

Big Forbes feature on Aubrey...  Pretty interesting stuff:

Aubrey McClendon: Fracking's Cowboy Rides Again - Forbes




> But just as it did at Chesapeake, McClendon’s fast-and-loose style could be catching up with him. Thanks to the implosion of oil and gas prices, billions of dollars of top-of-the-market asset purchases are likely slipping underwater, and his burgeoning empire is at risk. He’s now looking to raise billions more from investors, betting a rise in prices will vindicate him and reap huge profits.

----------


## Snowman

It will be interesting to see what happens, given how many places seemed to be get rid of land like a fire sale in recent years, there may have have been some at good values for a company that can make it through the dip in prices.

----------


## PhiAlpha

Looks like AEP's model of churning out multiple independent companies is starting to come to fruition, starting with AEP Appalachia. If all of these entities work out, this could be really good for OKC. 

American Energy Appalachia Holdings, LLC Announces Name Change to Ascent Resources, LLC; American Energy - Utica, LLC Announces $407 Million Asset Sale and $977 Million Equity and Debt Financing | American Energy Partners

----------


## Plutonic Panda

Aubrey McClendon's $2 billion IPO attempt falls short; only $11.2 million was raised | News OK

----------


## mimino

> Aubrey McClendon's $2 billion IPO attempt falls short; only $11.2 million was raised | News OK


He's on to something (re: purchase of assets), but bigger guys with more resources will have the first say before everything is said and done, which looks like late '16-'17, if they prices stay depressed.

----------


## Plutonic Panda

Reform results: McClendon signs $500M deal to drill in Argentina | The Journal Record

----------


## king183

Word "on the street" is AEP will effectively cease to exist within a matter of weeks. Aubrey's private equity partners are pulling out, resulting in the various parts of the company being spun off on their own, according to a source who works there.

----------


## Rover

> Word "on the street" is AEP will effectively cease to exist within a matter of weeks. Aubrey's private equity partners are pulling out, resulting in the various parts of the company being spun off on their own, according to a source who works there.


"on the street" can mean anything from "I got it from an internal officer who doesn't want to be named" to overhearing two drunks at a bar after they've just been let go by AEP. Please be a little more explicit when making a proclamation of this magnitude and let your reputation go with the announcement you just made.

----------


## Anonymous.

Judging by his post history, he looks to have it out for E&P companies. So it wouldn't surprise me if this is wishful thinking.

----------


## gopokes88

> Judging by his post history, he looks to have it out for E&P companies. So it wouldn't surprise me if this is wishful thinking.


Especially if you click the link on the post above his.

"Argentina has government mandated price controls, guaranteeing sales prices of $7.50 per 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas and $67.50 per barrel of oil, well above Friday's U.S. price of $2.10 and $29.42, respectively."

They're gonna pull out of that? Really?

American Energy Partners expands internationally | NewsOK.com

----------


## Bellaboo

> Judging by his post history, he looks to have it out for E&P companies. So it wouldn't surprise me if this is wishful thinking.


Judging by what he has said in the past, he was/is a tax accountant in O&G.

----------


## king183

> "on the street" can mean anything from "I got it from an internal officer who doesn't want to be named" to overhearing two drunks at a bar after they've just been let go by AEP. Please be a little more explicit when making a proclamation of this magnitude and let your reputation go with the announcement you just made.


I won't be more explicit for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with a brain. 

Nevertheless, I'm confident enough in the source that I was willing to post it and allow whatever reputation "go with it."

----------


## Anonymous.

Well this would be _quite_ the leak of information. I will stay tuned the next few weeks.

----------


## Thomas Vu

Does this have anything to do with their building now being called "Ascent resources" or is it different?

----------


## chuck5815

> Does this have anything to do with their building now being called "Ascent resources" or is it different?


Ascent Resources is the successor to AEP Appalachia. It primarily operates in Ohio's Utica Shale, I believe. And from what I understand, AEP has created similar entities for each major basin in which it operates. For example, I think there is a separate entity for operations conducted in the Permian Basin. 

Ascent Resources, LLC (Formerly American Energy - Appalachia, LLC)

----------


## Rover

> I won't be more explicit for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with a brain. 
> 
> Nevertheless, I'm confident enough in the source that I was willing to post it and allow whatever reputation "go with it."


Half a brain is about what it would take to make up any kind of story too.  This is anything but obvious without any kind of substantiation or real context.  Throwing a flat claim out without any context is just rumor mongering until real context is provided.  "Trust me" is not context, affirmation, or any kind of clue to make it obvious.

----------


## king183

> Ascent Resources is the successor to AEP Appalachia. It primarily operates in Ohio's Utica Shale, I believe. And from what I understand, AEP has created similar entities for each major basin in which it operates. For example, I think there is a separate entity for operations conducted in the Permian Basin. 
> 
> Ascent Resources, LLC (Formerly American Energy - Appalachia, LLC)


Correct, and each of those entities is about to go off on their own with AEP remaining as a yet undecided shell. It was announced internally this last week.

----------


## Rover

I believe it was always the plan to have each of these as separate entities.

----------


## Bellaboo

> I believe it was always the plan to have each of these as separate entities.


Has been planned for almost 2 years -

Oklahoma City-based American Energy Partners plans to spin off two subsidiaries | News OK

----------


## Timshel

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...se-bid-rigging

Only seeing this reported on Bloomberg as of now, but he has been under investigation for some time.


Edit: Link to the DOJ's Press Release - https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/forme...ral-gas-leases

----------


## gopokes88

DOJ indicts ex-CEO of Chesapeake Energy on conspiracy charges

Second source

----------


## zookeeper

Ex-Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon Indicted on Antitrust Charges - WSJ

Former Chesapeake CEO McClendon charged with bid-rigging of land leases | Reuters

----------


## Edgar

Court side Thunder seats opening up!

----------


## Jersey Boss

Looks like "King" knew what he was talking about.

----------


## jn1780

> Looks like "King" knew what he was talking about.


Or its just a coincidence. Either way, its toxic to be associated with Aubrey right now. It doesn't look like Chesapeake 2.0 is going to happen now.

----------


## Pete

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions about how this will play out.

----------


## Dustin

Woah....

Police: Former CEO of Chesapeake Aubrey McClendon killed in car accident | KFOR.com

----------


## AP

Wow. Just saw that.

----------


## FighttheGoodFight

> Woah....
> 
> Police: Former CEO of Chesapeake Aubrey McClendon killed in car accident | KFOR.com


I just saw this. Very shocking

----------


## Anonymous.

> Court side Thunder seats opening up!


Wow, this was the newest post in this thread since my last visit, and thought it was an awful joke about what happened today. I was relieved to see you posted this last night.

For anyone wondering, there is a thread in the Current Events discussing the car accident.

----------


## stile99

The only thought in my mind right now would definitely be filtered.  It starts with "what the" though.

----------


## Thomas Vu

> The only thought in my mind right now would definitely be filtered.  It starts with "what the" though.


Is there spoiler tag capabilities in OKCTalk?

----------


## warreng88

> Wow, this was the newest post in this thread since my last visit, and thought it was an awful joke about what happened today. I was relieved to see you posted this last night.
> 
> For anyone wondering, there is a thread in the Current Events discussing the car accident.


Sadly, I wouldn't put it past him to have posted that after the car accident report.

----------


## Edgar

> Sadly, I wouldn't put it past him to have posted that after the car accident report.


BS, regardless what I think of the man, I'd never make a crack about his death.

----------


## Pete

AEP issued a press release and said they will cease operations by this summer.

This sounds worse than it is...  They only have 100 employees (half of which lost their jobs today) because so many affiliates had spun off.

http://newsok.com/american-energy-pa...rticle/5498957

----------


## chuck5815

I love how the DOK buried the most important part of the story (the continuing nature of the spin-offs) right in the middle.

----------


## Canoe

Is this chapter 7?

----------


## Pete

No, they are just closing completely and voluntarily.

----------


## jerrywall

Is it really a shut down when you've spun off so much of the business, and those spinoffs such as White Star are still going?

----------


## Pete

Yeah, it's just a closing of their core entity.

At one time, they had well over 500 people working for AEP but most of those people went with the spun-off affiliates, leaving only 100 before yesterday's layoffs.

I believe everyone they had left were in the Harvey Parkway building.


BTW, it will be interesting to see what becomes of the AEP fitness center, which is super cool and relatively newly opened.

I suppose they will look for a health club operator to buy them out at some point.

Besides that, most of what Aubrey owned was massive acreage in the Arcadia / Jones / NE OKC area.

----------


## jn1780

Its just a formal end to Aubrey's vision of a Chesapeake 2.0. It was only two years ago when we were speculating about a new corporate campus being built along Wilshire.

----------


## bchris02

> Its just a formal end to Aubrey's vision of a Chesapeake 2.0. It was only two years ago when we were speculating about a new corporate campus being built along Wilshire.


Really glad that didn't happen, though it would have been great if AEP would have built a tower downtown.  I don't know why McClendon showed absolutely no interest in being a part of the downtown community with either of his companies.

----------


## Pete

I know the plans for the campus at Wilshire and Broadway were fully developed and from what I understand, amazing.

I hope they at least are revealed at some point because it would be fascinating to see them.

----------


## warreng88

> Really glad that didn't happen, though it would have been great if AEP would have built a tower downtown.  I don't know why McClendon showed absolutely no interest in being a part of the downtown community with either of his companies.


Because he wanted his companies to feel more like campuses than businesses. He felt it improved moral overall if people had to go outside and interact with people on their way to lunch as opposed to riding an elevator up 30 floors to work, then down and never leaving the building. I applaud the thought and vision but I think it came at a price.

----------


## dankrutka

> Because he wanted his companies to feel more like campuses than businesses. He felt it improved moral overall if people had to go outside and interact with people on their way to lunch as opposed to riding an elevator up 30 floors to work, then down and never leaving the building. I applaud the thought and vision but I think it came at a price.


Interesting. Is there evidence that a campus style set up increased interactions or morale among employees? I would think businesses located in high rises downtown actually would create more opportunities for interactions. Think how easy it is for employees at Devon to meet for lunch at Nebu, take a break together in the Myriad Gardens, or walk to a business dinner or Thunder game after work. While I understand the campus style idea, I'm curious if designing a workplace like it's a college campus actually is effective. In the end, workers likely don't function like college students who often have a class and then a lot of flexible time... Thoughts?

----------


## jerrywall

> While I understand the campus style idea, I'm curious if designing a workplace like it's a college campus actually is effective. In the end, workers likely don't function like college students who often have a class and then a lot of flexible time... Thoughts?


It's worked out well for Apple.

----------


## AP

That's hard data right there.

----------


## Plutonic Panda

Once again, this site never misses a chance to try and start some argument about urban vs. suburban.

----------


## dankrutka

> Once again, this site never misses a chance to try and start some argument about urban vs. suburban.


Or a discussion. And yeah, I thought that was the point of message boards. My questions were honestly asked. Maybe there is some good evidence for a campus style. I was curious. 

And while Apple is successful as a company, I'd like to more how their campus contributed to that. I work on a college campus everyday so I do see benefits, but college are differences than businesses.

----------


## Plutonic Panda

> Or a discussion. And yeah, I thought that was the point of message boards. My questions were honestly asked. Maybe there is some good evidence for a campus style. I was curious. 
> 
> And while Apple is successful as a company, I'd like to more how their campus contributed to that. I work on a college campus everyday so I do see benefits, but college are differences than businesses.


I'm sure there is good evidence for campus styles. Otherwise I don't see billion dollar companies spending billions to construct them. I'm sure some amount of research goes into it and the fact simply what the boss man in charge wants.

I don't know you would be concerned whether Apple's campus has helped the company? Has anyone said that? Also would you be asking the same thing if they were consolidated in a skyscraper in a good urban environment? I'm not an expert on this issue, but I think there are good and bads about each style. I have no preference. . . if I were a tech guy I'd be just as happy working on a campus in the Bay Area or a skyscraper in London.

I guess it's reasonable to call it a discussion and I can't really argue with that but this is something that just never seems to get old and I wanted to make that comment.

----------


## Pete

The biggest advantage for campuses is they are modular and you can add on as you need and grow.

Obviously, that is not the case with something like Devon Tower and within a few years they found the need to 'rent' another tower across the street.

Places like Apple and tech companies in California prefer campuses for this reason.  Also makes it easier to lease to other companies and still keep your operations completely separate.

However, there is a point where a campus becomes so sprawling that it's highly inefficient.  Lots of the tech campuses in California have bike share programs so people can travel the multiple blocks more quickly.  But if you think about that versus jumping on an elevator, it's a huge waste of time and energy just to get a handful of people together for a meeting.

And of course the weather in Oklahoma is very different than the west coast.

----------


## warreng88

> Interesting. Is there evidence that a campus style set up increased interactions or morale among employees? I would think businesses located in high rises downtown actually would create more opportunities for interactions. Think how easy it is for employees at Devon to meet for lunch at Nebu, take a break together in the Myriad Gardens, or walk to a business dinner or Thunder game after work. While I understand the campus style idea, I'm curious if designing a workplace like it's a college campus actually is effective. In the end, workers likely don't function like college students who often have a class and then a lot of flexible time... Thoughts?


Not sure, I just know that was a personal preference of Aubrey. He always mentioned it when talking about building there as opposed to downtown. Also, the people being recruited to work at CHK were typically younger, one or two years out of college. Going to work at CHK, which already looked like a college campus, was an easy transition for a lot of people.

----------


## jerrywall

> And while Apple is successful as a company, I'd like to more how their campus contributed to that.


It's a culture thing and a recruiting tool.  Especially in the tech/new media industry, Campus style headquarters are very popular.  The Googleplex, for example.  It creates a "loosened" environment, encourages self direction and innovation (or is believed to do so at least), and enables rapid expansion. 

It's not surprising that other companies would attempt to follow the behavior of some of the most innovative and successful companies of the past 20 years.

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## sooner88

> It's a culture thing and a recruiting tool.  Especially in the tech/new media industry, Campus style headquarters are very popular.  The Googleplex, for example.  It creates a "loosened" environment, encourages self direction and innovation (or is believed to do so at least), and enables rapid expansion. 
> 
> It's not surprising that other companies would attempt to follow the behavior of some of the most innovative and successful companies of the past 20 years.


It also does a good job of removing (or at least dispersing) the visual hierarchy of the company. No longer are there execs on the top floor, etc. 

CHK's campus was a good idea in theory, but as they grew the campus seemed to grow to a size that became inefficient on a company level. As someone mentioned, meetings across campus may take a 15 minute walk where in a tower you can just hop on an elevator. It would seem that once you reach a certain size you either need to abandon the campus or have multiple mid-rise buildings vs the 4 story buildings spread out over a large area.

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## AP

> It's a culture thing and a recruiting tool.  Especially in the tech/new media industry, Campus style headquarters are very popular.  The Googleplex, for example.  It creates a "loosened" environment, encourages self direction and innovation (or is believed to do so at least), and enables rapid expansion. 
> 
> It's not surprising that other companies would attempt to follow the behavior of some of the most innovative and successful companies of the past 20 years.


Wait, is that true? I've read a lot recently about companies moving out of campus style office parks in the suburbs in favor of cities... 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business...03N/story.html
http://www.seattletimes.com/business...ure-of-cities/

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## jerrywall

> Wait, is that true? I've read a lot recently about companies moving out of campus style office parks in the suburbs in favor of cities... 
> 
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/business...03N/story.html
> http://www.seattletimes.com/business...ure-of-cities/


*Shrug*  Every company is different.  I guess it depends which part you're questioning.  Their popularity?  It's sort of like choosing to live in the country vs the city... different strokes.  The perception of the "loosened" environment.  Well, that's going to be opinions so valid or not.  The rapid expansion?  Yes.

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## jerrywall

> Wait, is that true? I've read a lot recently about companies moving out of campus style office parks in the suburbs in favor of cities... 
> 
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/business...03N/story.html
> http://www.seattletimes.com/business...ure-of-cities/


BTW - City vs suburbs is not the same as campus vs highrise.  Amazon has a campus style headquarters in downtown Seattle.  And while 63rd and Western isn't downtown, I wouldn't consider it in the suburbs. Someone could build some real interesting campuses in an urban environment.

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## dankrutka

It's an interesting discussion. Thanks for the thoughtful answers.

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## Pete

Really, it's about growth and expandability.

Most the companies that opt for the campus model -- apart from California where campuses make sense due to the beautiful weather and lots of outdoor common space -- are fast-growing.

This was exactly the case with CHK.  Bought a few small buildings then added 2 or 3 every year and acquired enough land to keep growing.

Devon was much more mature and not growing nearly as fast.  They already had their employees scattered between a lot of downtown buildings, so they knew pretty much how much space they needed.  Also, Nichols himself was already highly involved downtown and the chamber, and the chamber is very, very downtown oriented.

Aubrey never got involved in the chamber and seem to have a personal preference for a campus with tons of landscaping and recreation facilities.  He also truly loved helping design all the different buildings, most of which where quite different than the last.


BTW, I hear this "Aubrey didn't want tall due to hierarchy" statement and it's completely silly.  He was among the most conspicuous consumers (dozens of antique boats, one of the largest private wine collections in the U.S.) and one of the highest paid CEO's in the world.  Absolutely no one is saying, "Gee, his office is only on the 4th floor so he's really just like us".  Beside the fact he had a huge, opulent office, big private bath, millions in artwork in it, etc.

He just liked a campus and may have used the 'man of the people argument' (although I think this was more conjecture than anything) but he was too smart of a guy to really think anyone bought into that.

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## bchris02

> CHK's campus was a good idea in theory, but as they grew the campus seemed to grow to a size that became inefficient on a company level. As someone mentioned, meetings across campus may take a 15 minute walk where in a tower you can just hop on an elevator. It would seem that once you reach a certain size you either need to abandon the campus or have multiple mid-rise buildings vs the 4 story buildings spread out over a large area.


I agree with this.  I would think that once a company reaches a certain size, the campus model would be come inefficient, at least as Aubrey did it.  Now I do know that some of the largest, most successful companies on the West Coast like Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc do the campus model, but I am not familiar with the specifics of their campuses and how its set up as opposed to CHK.

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## Pete

Tech companies like campus because leadership things that the creative, younger types prefer them to more traditional vertical office buildings.

Campuses imply a certain informality (Look!  We have a sand volleyball court and a lacrosse field!) and there is no way to duplicate that with monolithic office towers.

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## tfvc.org

> I agree with this.  I would think that once a company reaches a certain size, the campus model would be come inefficient, at least as Aubrey did it.  Now I do know that some of the largest, most successful companies on the West Coast like Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc do the campus model, but I am not familiar with the specifics of their campuses and how its set up as opposed to CHK.


Also tech companies like Apple and Alphabet have many tentacles  so splitting into different buildings are easier to do than companies who do fewer things and operational departments.

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