Free Republic

Who is this Richard Kinder, and why is what he says both so funny and so true? He's the 66-year-old CEO of Kinder Morgan, Inc., who at the moment is trying to create the country's largest network of gas pipelines. What he said at a company conclave may have qualified as the best comedy act of last year. For it demonstrated once again that there's much truth in jest. In his ever-loquacious way, Mr. Kinder was talking about the merger between his company and El Paso Corp., which his bankers told him would produce the biggest pipeline company in world....

When Richard Kinder left Enron in late 1996 he set out to build an empire out of the staid yet steady energy pipeline business. Nearly 10 years later he plans to take Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc., where he is chairman and chief executive, private in a $13.5 billion transaction that could be one of the largest such buyouts in U.S. corporate history. Kinder, along with members of his management team, board of directors and a group of investment firms, wants to give Kinder Morgan Inc. shareholders $100 cash for every share, an 18.5 percent premium over KMI's $84.41 closing price...