In the paper this morning there was an article about T. Boone Pickens giving $75 million to the University of Oklahoma. In the article he was described as a "Texas oilman".That is not what he's famous for is it? I seem to remember his name from the mid-80s, but don't remember why. Was he one of the "junk bond raiders" or was he famous for something else? Anyone remember?

junk bond raider of oil and energyco's in the 80's and 90'sa good man to have on the scene these days, I'd think - we could use some consolidation given the debt problems in the industry

Thanks kr, I thought that was the case, but no one in my office seemed to remember.

Funny article about T. Boone "suing Mother Nature":Article is here.

I met T. Boone Pickens when I was running eRaider.He founded and ran Mesa Petroleum which engaged in hostile takeovers as far back as the 1960s. In the second half of the 1970s, oil companies overinvested wildly in exploration and production. Rates of return were clearly negative, oil stocks sold at far less than net asset value. If you wanted oil production, it was much cheaper to buy oil company stocks than to look for it yourself. So that's what Pickens did. He made a lot of money with successful acquisitions, but also in unsuccessful ones either through selling his holdings to the white knight or greenmail.He put up $1 million to found the United Shareholders Alliance, which did a lot of good in changing the laws against shareholder organization. But he had a falling out with Ralph Whitworth who ran USA (Ralph went on to found Relational Investors which runs almost $1 billion in pension money and works for governance improvements at its companies).T. Boone Pickens was an important corporate raider, the only major one who could run a company.