Williams Companies

The Williams Companies, Inc.

We make energy happen.
Type	Public company
Traded as	: WMB S&P 500 Component
Industry	Oil and Gas
Founded	1908
Founder	David Williams Miller Williams
Headquarters	Tulsa, Oklahoma, US
Area served	North America
Key people	Alan S. Armstrong (President) & (CEO)
Products	Oil & Natural gas
Revenue	US$ 7.360 billion (2015)
Operating income	$ 226 million (2015)
Net income	$ 571 million (2015)
Total assets	$ 49.020 billion (2015)
Total equity	$ 6.148 billion (2015)
Number of employees	6,578
Website	www.williams.com

The Williams Companies, Inc. is an energy company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Its core business is natural gas processing and transportation, with additional petroleum and electricity generation assets. A Fortune 500 company, its common stock is a component of the S&P 500.

It was founded as Williams Brothers in 1908 by Miller and David Williams in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and soon expanded to building nationwide pipelines for natural gas and petroleum. The company relocated to Tulsa in 1919. In 1949, John H. Williams, a nephew of the founders, together with his brother Charles Williams and David's son David Williams Jr., bought the business from the founders; John H. Williams remained as president of the company until 1971 and CEO until 1979.

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 of Northwest Energy Company, and extended their reach to the East Coast with the 1995 purchase of Transco Energy Company.

In 2001, Williams acquired Barrett Resources, which provided them with additional national gas reserves.

In 2002, the company found itself in financial distress due to changed market conditions and the large debt of its subsidiary Williams Communications Group. The company obtained and paid off an emergency high interest loan from Warren Buffett to stay out of bankruptcy, and redirected its focus toward natural gas production, processing, and transportation as well as increasing its resource holdings. One of the moves it made around that time (2004) was the sale of 2 of Canada's largest natural gas straddle plants, and its interest in another to Inter Pipeline Fund for US$540 million.