This has prompted speculation about consolidation, and Morgan Stanley energy analysts Wednesday offered some possible combinations that would make sense based on “accretion and geographic overlap.”
Range Resources (RRC) and Southwestern Energy (SWN), two natural-gas producers are potential candidates.
Who wins in a change of control transaction?
Range’s five named executive officers would collect an estimated $25MM in compensation if they were terminated without cause. The institutional owners passive management of their stock ownership and failure to hold Ventura et al accountable for their fatally flawed decisions is difficult to comprehend.
Too much debt! Nobody would want the mess in North LA either.
It makes sense if the final end game is to be gobbled up by a big. My questions is, why would a big want anything to do with the Marcellus? If a big is going to spend money and acquire something, it will not be in the Marcellus.
Does it really make sense for two companies that have completely failed to deleverage themselves in a rapidly declining market to combine? Just because they are neighbors doesn't make them good for one another? Seems like they're both better off getting scooped up by one of the bigs.