Williams appoints new chairman, CEO to stay; stock reopens lower

The resignations Thursday from the board come a day after Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) walked away from its roughly $20 billion deal to buy Williams after months of lawsuits and heated rhetoric between the rival pipeline companies.

Williams Cos Inc’s board stood by CEO Alan Armstrong and named a new chairman on Friday after six directors resigned following a failed attempt to unseat him.

Its board also issued statement reposing confidence in Alan, who has been with the company since 2011.

Former Chairman Frank MacInnis was one of the members who quit.

Williams said it is retaining Armstrong as CEO after the board “thoroughly evaluated the company’s leadership structure and determined [Armstrong] is the right CEO for Williams as the company works to continue enhancing stockholder value”.

Bylaws for the Williams Board of Directors state that the governing body must have a minimum of five members. Board member Kathleen Cooper, who voted against the deal, testified that she felt threatened that Meister and Mandelblatt would campaign to have her removed from the board if the deal was not approved.

All three had pushed for Williams Cos.to be acquired by Energy Transfer, while Armstrong opposed the deal.

Meister is the founder of hedge fund Corvex Management and Mandelblatt runs Soroban Capital Partners, which collectively own 8.4 percent of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams.

Still, Williams has been hurt this year as many of its customers wrestled with low oil and gas prices.

Not all Williams investors share that view.

The development occurred during a closed-door meeting, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The now-defunct merger of Energy Transfer and Williams was designed to create arguably the nation’s largest pipeline and midstream infrastructure giant.

On Thursday, six out of the thirteen members at the William Companies resigned.