The Takeover Attempts

During the 1980s, T. Boone Pickens launched high-profile corporate takeover attempts. Utilizing the media to help tell his story was a critical element of each campaign.

UNOCAL

PBS Nightly Business Report, March 21, 1985

Moneyline, April 9, 1985

PHILLIPS

MacNeil Lehrer News Hour, December 6, 1984

Face the Nation, CBS News, February 24, 1985

GULF

This Week, ABC News, March 18, 1984

CBS Morning News, 1984

Pinnacle with Tom Cassidy, CNN, 1985

DIAMOND SHAMROCK

John McLaughlin, One on One, Public Broadcasting Service, 1986

Shareholder Rights’ Efforts

Pickens was an early champion of shareholders rights, advocating that corporate shareholders owned the company and corporate managers were employees.

Bear Stearns Special Report with Ron Betten, 1985

University Television Network, Oct. 25, 1987

ABC News, July 1988

ABC News, 1988

United Shareholders Association

In 1986, Pickens founded the United Shareholders Association (USA), which gathered substantial grassroots support, counting 65,000 members at its zenith. During its eight-year existence, it generated mounds of shareholder-rights advocacy correspondence. After nearly two years of periodic hearings and debate, in July 1988 the SEC voted 4-1 to approve a one-share, one-vote rule, a primary USA mission.

CNN, Take Two, August 25, 1986

Moneyline, 1989

Texas Governor Race

Boone once contemplated a run for Governor of Texas but ended that notion in a speech to the Downtown Dallas Rotary Club.

Dallas Rotary International Club speech, August 30, 1989

KFDA, Amarillo News, August 30, 1989

Mesa Fitness Program

In 1979, Boone built a $2.5 million, 30,000-square-foot fitness center at Mesa Petroleum in Amarillo and instituted a corporate wellness program available to all employees (it was later expanded to spouses). Pickens espoused that physical fitness created a better, more economically sound workforce and workplace. In the process, Mesa earned the title the “Most Physically Fit Company in America” in 1985.

Amarillo KAMR News, 1989

Japan

In late 1988, a contingent of Japanese businessmen led by Kitaro Watanabe enlisted Boone’s help in a struggle against Koito Manufacturing Co., a main subcontractor of Toyota Motor Co. Boone was soon embroiled in a strange, two-and-a-half-year odyssey that became the focus of intense international scrutiny.

Boone Co. video to Koito Japanese stockholders, 1990

Japanese news reports, 1990

WFAA Dallas, Financial News Network Reports, June 1990

CNN Moneyline, 1990

News Report, FNN Network, 1990

Moneyline, 1990

American Interests, 1990

Ethics in America

“I learned early on that you play by the rules. It’s no fun if you cheat to win.”
— Boone Pickens

Ethics in America, The Annenberg/CPB Project, October 31, 1987