With deregulation, globalization, and the emergence of junk bond financing, the 1980s turned into the era of dealmaking. It seemed like no company was immune from hostile takeovers. And, one of the key players in this era was George Keller, who died this week. He was 84 years old.

Of course, his marquee deal happened in 1984, when he was the chairman of Standard Oil Co. of California. At the time, rival Gulf Oil was involved in a nasty hostile takeover with T. Boone Pickens (who had the support of Mike Milken's junk bonds). Gulf thought such a deal would be harmful for the long-term and result in massive layoffs. So, why not find a white knight?

Enter Keller.

Basically, he saw an opportunity to boost Socal's reserves significantly. What's more, the price tag looked fairly good (when crunching the numbers): $13.3 billion. The end result was a company called Chevron (NYSE: CVX).

Yes, it was considered a staggering deal. But it was forward-looking. Since then the oil industry has undergone tremendous consolidation -- and the Gulf deal became a model on how to do it.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market. He is also the founder of BizEquity, a valuation website.

George Keller: The innovator of the mega deal originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Standard Oil (1870 - 1911) was the dominant oil company in the world until it was felled by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. John D. Rockefeller was a business genius of the first order. He used his control over train routes and refineries to buy up oil wells and block competitors from taking market share.

Thanks to journalist Ida Tarbell, Rockefeller's rough business tactics got plenty of publicity. In 1911, the Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil had violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act through its tactics of using low prices to wipe out competitors. The result, as chronicled in one of my favorite books, Ron Chernow's Titan, was a breakup of the company into what is now Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM), and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP).

The lesson: What didn't kill Standard Oil made its offspring stronger.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Companies that vanished: Standard Oil -- one giant becomes three originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.