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Once he is ready to launch the final takeover battle, Pickens sets up a command post at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria or Helmsley Palace hotels. From there, he directs the action like a general, keeping in round-the-clock touch with allies and moneymen across the country. "He's incredibly well plugged in," says a Wall Street financier. "One of his great strengths is that he has more sources than anyone." Notes an investment banker: "He's an absolutely brilliant poker player, though there's a little chess in his game too."
Pickens woos stockholder votes with a simple appeal: a higher price for their shares. He makes certain that the stockowners know how much he is offering by taking out newspaper ads and giving interviews to the press. He frequently points out how much investors have gained in his previous deals.
It was in 1982 that Pickens took aim at Cities Service, an Oklahoma firm whose sales were nearly 20 times Mesa's. It proved badger tough, however, and nearly succeeded in swallowing Mesa by bidding for its stock before finally calling it quits and selling out to Occidental Petroleum. That hectic skirmish brought the Mesa group a $31.5 million profit and taught it some lessons. "Mesa had insufficient financial muscle throughout that fight," says Assistant Vice President Sidney Tassin. "We had a good idea but not enough money to back it up."
Pickens had enough for the spectacular, six-month battle for Gulf Oil, which began in October 1983. He waged it with $1.3 billion in credit that he raised from bankers and partners like Independent Texas Oilmen Cyril Wagner Jr. and Jack Brown. "Our bid was extremely bold," says Tassin. "It was an incredibly intuitive reading by Boone." Pickens correctly anticipated that Gulf's top executives would underestimate him and fail to erect an effective defense. "They were not street fighters," Pickens says.
% The Gulf battle made Pickens a Wall Street hero; investors who bought Gulf around the same time as he did earned millions in profits. Arbitragers, the professionals who invest in the stock of takeover targets in order to sell it for a higher price once the merger takes place, walked away with a $300 million windfall. When some 50 of the speculators attended a dinner for Pickens last June at the Regency Hotel on Manhattan's Park Avenue, New York Mayor Edward Koch gave him a crystal replica of the city's symbol, the apple, in honor of the $50 million that the Gulf fight had brought to New York City in the form of legal fees and payments for other services. Midway through the evening a chimpanzee on roller skates suddenly appeared. Garbed in Gulf filling-station livery, the ape wheeled into the room, sat down next to Pickens and began licking his face. Quipped the startled oilman in reference to Gulf's chairman: "James Lee was never this friendly."