Expand Energy (Formerly Chesapeake)

[David]

End of an era and the loss of a great brand name to something generic and boring.

[ManAboutTown]

End of an era and the loss of a great brand name to something generic and boring.

Agreed.

[Bellaboo]

Maybe they thought it was best to 'Turn the Page'

[warreng88]

I drove by the CHK campus and they had signs over the open CHK signs. Which is ironic considering they won't office out of most of that space...

[Dob Hooligan]

I always wonder why people liked the Chesapeake name so much, since it had nothing to do with the HQ city, or where it did it's business?

[gopokes88]

I drove by the CHK campus and they had signs over the open CHK signs. Which is ironic considering they won't office out of most of that space...

Only SWN marketing is staying in Houston, the rest is in OKC. Corporate address is still OKC as seen here. https://www.rbcrichardsonbarr.com/In...0PZONE19248926

[Pete]

All the Expand/CHK employees will soon be consolidated into a single building: #15.

It is being remodeled for that purpose.

[PhiAlpha]

I always wonder why people liked the Chesapeake name so much, since it had nothing to do with the HQ city, or where it did its business?

It just sounded good and they did a great job of branding, especially while AKM was there (that’s what having a whole PR staff dedicated to it will do). The beautiful campus that reflects the name and all of its community involvement also helped build a positive association with it. Among those in the industry they had a reputation for paying salaries above market and were one of the first energy companies, especially locally, that offered benefits like a Silicon Valley tech company. Their record among land owners was much more mixed but especially during their heyday, CHK had a reputation of paying top dollar on lease bonuses (which ended up being a terrible strategy after natural gas prices tanked but did lock up a massive asset base)…all of those things contributed to feelings surrounding the brand.

With that said, they did probably need to rebrand. The CHK name had a lot of baggage, especially after the natural gas market tanked and all the stuff surrounding AKM. They just couldn’t have come up with a more bland, unimaginative, generic name for an energy company than they did…not as bad as the product of the Newfield and Encana Merger (Ovinitiv…which sounds like a pharmaceutical drug)…but it’s not good.

[David]

Oh wow, yeah Ovinitiv is so much worse.

[PhiAlpha]

Oh wow, yeah Ovinitiv is so much worse.

Just makes you want to instinctively start searching for the side effects in the fine print.

[gopokes88]

Credit rating upgraded to investment grade post acquisition. https://www.expandenergy.com/2024/10...fitch-ratings/

[Pete]

They have submitted plans to renovate Building 15 to accommodate all their employees.

They will be adding a new lobby on the east side.

[warreng88]

Only SWN marketing is staying in Houston, the rest is in OKC. Corporate address is still OKC as seen here. https://www.rbcrichardsonbarr.com/In...0PZONE19248926

I understand that. what I am saying is where the signs are posted were around the main part of the campus bound by Classen/Western/63th. The whole company will be moving to Building 15 as Pete has alluded to and the rest of the campus will be empty.

[Pete]

If they are just now filing plans, I bet it will take close to a year for the entire enterprise to be consolidated in Building 15.

At that point, I would expect them to get serious about selling off the central part of that campus.