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Description of  The Taking of Getty Oil: Pennzoil, Texaco, and the Takeover Battle That Made History

A larger-than-life account of family, greed, and a courtroom showdown between Big Oil rivals from the New York Timesbestselling author of Private Empire. Pulitzer Prizewinning author Steve Coll is renowned for his ability to take complicated, significant business stories and turn them into quick-reading engaging narratives (Chicago Tribune). Coll is at the height of his talents in this riveting tale of one of the most spectacularand catastrophiccorporate takeovers of all time (Newsday). As the head of a sprawling oil empire, J. Paul Getty was once the worlds richest man. But by 1984, eight years after his death, Gettys legacy was in tatters: His children were locked in a bitter feud over the family trust and the company he founded was riven by boardroom turmoil. Then Pennzoil made an agreement with Gettys son, Gordon, to purchase Getty Oil. It was a done dealuntil Texaco swooped in to claim the $10 billion prize. What followed was an epic legal battle that pit good ole boy J. Hugh Liedtke of Pennzoil against the Wall Street brokers behind Texacos offer. The scandalous details of the case would shock the business world and change the landscape of the oil industry forever. With a large cast of colorful characters and the dramatic pacing of a novel, The Taking of Getty Oil is a suspenseful and always intriguing chronicle of one of the most fascinating chapters in American corporate history (Publishers Weekly).