Conoco Inc.

Conoco Inc. was an American oil company founded in 1875 as the Continental Oil and Transportation Company. Based in Ogden, Utah, the company was a coal, oil, kerosene, grease and candles distributor in the West. The main office was later moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma, when on June 26, 1929, Marland Oil Company (founded by exploration pioneer E. W. Marland) acquired for a consideration of 2,317,266 shares of stock, the assets (subject to liabilities) of Continental Oil Company. (1) At that time Marland Oil changed its name to Continental Oil Company. The acquisition gave Conoco the red triangle symbol previously used by Marland and would become Conoco's logo from 1930 to 1970 when the current capsule logo was adopted.

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The company ran into early trouble when, shortly after acquisition, it was hit by the Great Crash of October 1929. Nevertheless, Conoco became a key supplier to the United States government during World War II. Under the leadership of Leonard F. McCollum, Conoco grew from a regional company to a global corporation. Another rough patch for the company came during the 1970s oil crisis, from which it did not recover until 1981, when Conoco became a subsidiary of former rival DuPont.

In 1981, cash rich and wanting to diversify, Seagram Company Ltd. engineered a takeover of Conoco Inc., a major American oil and gas producing company. Although Seagram acquired a 32.2% stake in Conoco, DuPont was brought in as a white knight by the oil company and entered the bidding war. In the end, Seagram lost out in the Conoco bidding war. But in exchange for its stake in Conoco Inc, it became a 24.3% owner of DuPont. By 1995 Seagram was DuPont's largest single shareholder with four seats on the board of directors.

In 1997 DuPont and Conoco parted ways. When the independent Conoco went public in October 1998, under the retooled name, Continental Oil Company, it resulted in the largest IPO in history. Conoco bought what was left of Gulf Oil's Canadian operations in 2002. Conoco merged with Phillips 66 in 2002. The merged company was announced as the now well-known ConocoPhillips.

External link & References

• CONOCO Incorporation History
• Crisis & Independence: 1972 - 2000
• About ConocoPhillips
• The Conoco-Somalia Declassification Project at College of DuPage

1. Moody’s Industrial Mannual, 1960 "E. W. Marland: Life and Death of an Oil Man", John Joseph Mathews. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, (1951): ISBN 0806112887.