A $54 Billion Reputation

For more than a century, Bp (NYSE: BP) has been one of the world’s giant oil producers. the company was founded in 1901 when a lawyer-turned-mining-and-mineral-tycoon named William Knox D’Arcy negotiated with the Persian Shah for a 60-year concession to explore for oil on property covering 480,000 square miles. nearly a century later, in a $50 billion deal, British petroleum acquired Amoco Corporation, the fifth largest oil company in the united States and largest producer of natural gas in north America, forming Bp Amoco plc. the “Amoco” name soon disappeared and the company has been known since as “BP plc.”