BP: No comment possible Exxon takeover bid

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Oil major BP PLC Sunday declined to comment on a report in a U.K. newspaper that Exxon was mulling a takeover bid for the company.

A spokesman for BP also declined to comment on a U.K. press report that BP was in talks with the U.S.'s Apache Corp. to sell up to $12 billion in assets including a big stake in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oil field.

"We have no comment to make on market rumors and speculation," a BP spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires.

The U.K.'s Sunday Times said that Exxon had sought clearance from Washington DC to examine a takeover bid for BP.

The newspaper cited oil industry sources as saying the Obama administration had told Exxon and one other U.S. oil company, thought to be Chevron, that it would not stand in the way of a deal that could value BP at up to GBP100 billion.

More at link: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bp-no-comment-possible-exxon-takeover-bid-2010-07-11

This worries me on so many levels. First and foremost Exxon knows exactly how to dodge payouts for the damage they cause. I can only imagine the wiggle room on a spill caused by a previous owner.

just a dumb question.

Apparently a corporation is not big enough until it's too big to fail. :(