Before the XTO buyout from EM, we operated efficiently without 100 layers of management, bs processes, and bs “extracurricular” step outs. We actually got work DONE and were a lean organization.
Now thanks to EM ranking many of my fellow XTO hard working colleagues are being asked to leave just because they didn’t start originally with EM or don’t fit the “mold”
SEPARATE XTO AND EM AGAIN.
They just wanted the XTO assets because they were late to the shake game. Treated like a step child when the people are no longer needed. They got what they wanted, the oil.
URC people (now UIS/RTD) are worthless and a drag and failure no matter where they go. XTO is damaged for good and continue to deal with messed up URC folks who transferred here.
: @jzn+18fOUfDn That only makes it more clear how foolish xom was for buying xto in the first place. Good people but bad business move.
@nxv+18fOUfDn If you think the factory model has been a success you haven’t been paying attention.
XTO was acquired because Tillerson wanted to change the culture at XOM. He realized it wasn't going to happen prior his retirement. The acquisition and exploration model only works if you can find someone else to sell it to and to get a major interested you had to reach a certain size. The last two acquisitions allowed this to occur.
The Tiger ate the Pegasus and the horse that shat out XOM. The leadership has zero understanding of innovation and disruption. Just a bunch of losers who became rich by sacrificing others ruthlessly, but at the end of the day they are just empty vessels trying to mold us in their vane image.
XTO was the best thing happened to XOM since Mobil merger. Not saying it was smart or it paid off, bad was great since everything else XOM did was a screw up. Yes, Agree XOM destroyed XTO. Everything was good until we started sending managers and URC people to XTO. XTO used to have one geologist per asset and one drilling engineer per several rigs. Now they have five geologists per asset, bunch of URC folks doing nothing and several drilling engineers per one rig.
Unfortunately XTO never panned out and EM was a lifeline that kept XTO afloat. If you look at Chesapeake they had to file for bankruptcy this year, which would have been a probable situation for XTO. Regardless, this was only one of the missteps.
I enjoyed my time working for XTO, but it’s foolish to think they would have survived as a separate company without XOM supporting them. How many years were they in the red?
For perspective, XTO organization and people got much better treatment than the Mobil folks did 20 years ago. At least XTO was kept separate for a good while.
With few exceptions, Exxon totally destroyed the Mobil people, culture and work processes, all in about six months. Could have learned a lot from Mobil, especially in risk management and deal making, but Exxon was not interested at all. Command and control all the way.
Biggest difference is that Mobil acquisition was a gold mine for Exxon and saved their bacon with a vast inventory of quality unfunded projects. XTO not so much.
XTO would have been filed for bankruptcy earlier this year or before, have not been supported by Exxon’s wallet (or debt now).
Not the land, the subsurface, or the technical knowhow is valuable without the economy of scale of the factory Exxon wanted to put on top. The know-nothing, dumb way to develop typical of XTO is how all the other dinosaurs went under.
BOB SIMPSON RUINED XTO
Yup. Legacy Exxon people were awful to work with. No common sense and arrogant dorks. Xto was a well ran company before em. Love watching em burn. Hope the d bag engineers I had to work with get cut.
XTO was a typical acquisition of an upstream property to capitalize on the shale boom. It appears that EM should have paid more attention to the 15-16 oil downturn, i.e., crisis. EM restructuring in 2020 is a very delayed response to poor management of all EM employee's future. The pandemic is another example of cutting cost for future financial gain. The entire industry has been in shambles with major investors pulling out of the market since 2018.
Many of our problems began under Rex. We have not generated enough cash to meet CAPEX and dividend demands for last 8 years. XTO was purchased at $5+ natural gas versus $2.50 today: way overpriced. XTO was not well-managed company, but price hid lots of their flaws. They would have been decimated like the other midstream's during this demand destruction. Agree with original post, that Exxon did not bring much value to XTO, and vice versa. Just two different business models.
Um...yeah...XTO was kind of Ponzi scam by the end. A much flatter Ponzi scam, but still. Just keep buying junk from anybody Simpson could find and hope that prices would keep going up to cover the reach on acq costs. Eventually bought Hunt and Dominion and those were garbage. Clock ticking. Thankfully for XTO execs XOM thought natgas was going to be $5-6/mcf in the future.
I'll give it to XTO, they had some very smart folks in charge of various parts of the organization, including Hutton who was the smartest of them all. They much more closely resembled an oil company that could compete in the US operationally. Its just very very hard to avoid falling into a trap when your goal is to grow 20-30% every year. Its kind of silly to blame XTO for XOM overvaluing them, but let's not pretend XTO would have been awesomesauce without XOM "interference".
XOM on the other hand has really been perplexing. Some nice folks. Some smart folks. But mostly just a cluster. Its like watching the US postal service trying to compete with Amazon. Is anybody surprised they have to layoff a bunch of folks and can't make projects work? Nope. Should be noted that Simpson and Hutton have seemed to run $1B into the ground at Morningstar etc in this environment as well.....
And yeah XOM CEO situation is odd, but again, the whole thing is perplexing, its just a bunch of folks looting what they can get before the iceberg is hit so he fits right in.
Get over it.. the flavor of the season is how Darren Woods RUINED ExxonMobil and remained as CEO
XTO is junk. Never should have purchased. I'd gladly see them split off.