- Williams Companies
Infobox_Company
company_name = The Williams Companies, Inc.
company_
company_type = Public
company_slogan = A tradition America can count on.
foundation =Fort Smith, Arkansas , 1908
location =Tulsa, Oklahoma , U.S.
key_people =Steven J. Malcolm , CEO
industry = Energy marketing and trading
Natural gas pipelines
Energy services
num_employees = 3,913
products = oil & natural gas
revenue = $12.6 billion USD ( 2005)
homepage = [http://www.williams.com/ www.williams.com]The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE|WMB) is an energy company based in
Tulsa, Oklahoma . Its core business isnatural gas exploration, production, processing, and transportation, with additionalpetroleum andelectricity generation assets. A Fortune 200 company, its common stock is a component of theS&P 500 and theDow Jones Utility Average .History
It was founded as Williams Brothers in 1908 by Miller and David Williams in
Fort Smith, Arkansas , and soon expanded to building nationwide pipelines fornatural gas andpetroleum . The company relocated to Tulsa in 1919.The company went public in 1957 under the Williams Brothers name. As it diversified in the 1970s, it was renamed The Williams Companies, Inc. Since 1997, their
brand identity has been simplified to "Williams".In 1966, Williams bought the then-largest petroleum products pipeline in America, known as the
Great Lakes Pipe Line Company , for about $287 million. In 1982, it expanded into natural gas transportation with the purchase ofNorthwest Energy Company , and extended their reach to the East Coast with the 1995 purchase ofTransco Energy Company .In 2001, Williams acquired
Barrett Resources , which provided them with additional national gas reserves.Telecommunications
The company helped to get the modern
telecommunications industry off the ground by runningfiber optic cable through its decommissioned pipelines. It built two nationwide networks which have since become their own companies; the first was sold in 1995 to LDDS (which would become WorldCom and then MCI) and the second was spun off in 2001 as Williams Communications (which would becomeWilTel Communications and later consolidate intoLevel 3 ).External links
* [http://www.williams.com/index.asp Official site]
* [http://www.hoovers.com/williams-companies/--ID__11638--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml Hoovers summary]
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