The Taking of Getty Oil: The Full Story of the Most Spectacular - and Catastrophic - Takeover of All Time [Hardcover]

Steve Coll (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The financial disarray in which J. Paul Getty's death in 1976 left his family and the Getty Oil Company has led to sibling contention, corporate intrigue, courtroom high drama and, most recently, to an unprecedented $11-billion damage judgment over the Texaco-Pennzoil acquisition. Using "reconstructed dialogue" and suspenseful narrative, Washington Post financial writer Coll spins the story of family trustee Gordon Getty who sows confusion; a beset Getty Oil management; Texas oil-patch "good ole boy" Hugh Liedtke of Pennzoil fulfilling his dream to buyout Getty, only to be outmaneuvered by Texaco's Wall Street merger-brokersbut eventually winning in a down-home jury trial the biggest civil monetary damage award ever. Coll's behind-the-scenes account of investment banking and legal high jinks is at times startling and always intriguing. Major ad/promo; first serial to the Los Angeles Times Magazine.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The struggle between Pennzoil and Texaco to take over Getty Oil has become a popular subject. Like Thomas Petzinger's Oil & Honor ( LJ 6/15/87), this business history, with its large cast of players, reads like a novel. Relying primarily upon interviews, depositions, and oral testimony, Coll uses dialogue to enliven this account of how Pennzoil's attempt to resolve a Getty family feud resulted in Texaco, one of America's biggest corporations, filing for bankruptcy. This well-researched and superbly written book recounts events through early 1987. Highly recommended for public, academic, and business libraries. Leonard Grundt, Nassau Communty Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 484 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Printing edition (August 31, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689118600
• ISBN-13: 978-0689118609
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #615,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steve Coll is a writer for The New Yorker and author of the Pulitzer Prize- winning Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. He is president of the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington, D.C. Previously he served, for more than twenty years, as a reporter, foreign correspondent, and ultimately as managing editor of The Washington Post. He is also the author of On the Grand Trunk Road, The Deal of the Century, and The Taking of Getty Oil. Coll received a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism and the 2001 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for outstanding international print reporting and the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for best magazine reporting from abroad. Ghost Wars, published in 2004, received the Pulitzer for general nonfiction and the Arthur Ross award for the best book on international affairs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Business Book, October 24, 2005

By 

Daniel Davy (Manhattan, Kansas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Taking of Getty Oil: The Full Story of the Most Spectacular - and Catastrophic - Takeover of All Time (Hardcover)

It is almost embarrasing that no previous reader reviews of this book have appeared in Amazon, the reason being, no doubt, that it was published prior to the inception of Amazon. This is an extremely good business book. Coll gives us a very concrete, blow by blow description of the events leading to the acquisition of Getty by Texaco. The story here does not tell itself; it is potentially very messy due to the large number of swirling conflicts and multiple personalities involved, and the inherent difficulty in sorting the multiple facets of the story out, and presenting them in a clear narrative line. Despite this potential murk, the story as it unfolds is extremely dramatic, twisting, turning, doubling back on itself, and popping out more than one totally unanticipated surprise. The book is as good as it is because of Coll's skill in clarifying all of this, and underlining, subtly, the constant micro-drama as it unfolds (it's not just the "big" actions that are dramatic, but lots of little moves along the way). Coll is also excellent in giving us a clear and concrete sense of the different personalities involved, without which the events themselves would be far less interesting. All in all, a very satisfying read.

4.0 out of 5 stars A still fascinating read, January 1, 2012

By 

Alferd Packer "Philo Kvetch" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Taking of Getty Oil: The Full Story of the Most Spectacular - and Catastrophic - Takeover of All Time (Hardcover)

I first read this book shortly after it was originally published. It's still a fascinating story although current readers will consider the numbers involved rather quaint. Still, as a observation on human nature, it just goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.