Here’s an interesting report from Bloomberg on how Old School ties brought the two companies together (and how nice the old school in question was UT).
One question: Bloomberg continues to repeat what the financial press mainly reported yesterday, that the deal is valued at $31 billion based on yesterday’s stock price (now $29 billion after Exxon’s stock fell slightly). But buried down in, say, the 98th paragraph of some stories was the additional news that Exxon was also assuming XTO’s $10 billion in debt. Debt is not real money? Now that I think of it, isn’t debt more real than stock — that is, doesn’t it have to repaid in cold, hard cash? Of all the news services, as far as I can tell only the Australian and Mediawatch reported the deal’s true value at $41 billion.
