It was an item buried on page 20 of an amended S-4 form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that rocked Tulsa and state leaders this week. If and when the merger between Williams Cos. and Energy Exchange Equity of Dallas, Texas is completed, the Williams headquarters will be moved to the Big D.
Here is how Energy Exchange stated it in the filing:
“ETE and WMB have also been analyzing other seps to reduce general and administrative expenses. ETE has determined that it will be necessary to consolidate corporate offices and headquarters of ETE and WMB in Dallas, Texas in order to achieve the appropriate overall reduction in general and administrative costs for the combined company and headquarters and, as a result, the current presence of WMB in Tula, Oklahoma and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma will need to be significantly reduced, particularly with respect to the finance, accounting, engineering and construction, legal, human resources and information technology functions, or potentially eliminated.”
Tulsa has nearly a thousand Williams Cos. employees while a few hundred are located at the Oklahoma City operations.
In the same SEC filing, ETE stated:
“In addition to the issuance of the Convertible Units that ETE states is a means to address the rating agency issues described in this proxy statement/prospectus, ETE and WMB have been analyzing the potential cost savings that may be realized with respect to general and administrative expenses as a result of the merger. In light of the decline in energy commodity prices, both ETE and WMB are also analyzing cost reductions that may be achieved on a standalone basis and, in this regard, WMB recently announced a plan to reduce its workforce by 10 percent that will be implemented prior to the closing of the merger.”
While Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett has indicated he will put up a fight to stop the merger from happening, ETE faces several lawsuits also challenging the merger. Those suits were pointed out in Wednesday’s SEC filing. WMB stockholders filed putative class action lawsuits in Delaware between October and December of last year. Another WMB stockholder filed suit in January, 2016 in Oklahoma City federal court alleging the two companies violated the SEC Act of 1934 “by making allegedly false statements concerning the merger.”
Still another stockholder of WMB filed suit on Jan. 15, 2016 accusing the WMB Board members of breaching their fidicuiary duties in agreeing to the merger of Williams Partners. A lawsuit was also filed Jan. 19, 2016 against WMB, its board and ETE.
“The defendants believe the allegations in the various complaints are without merit,” stated ETE in its SEC filing.
