Over the last 10 years, every time Cenovus made a bad business decision, ranging from selling their conventional assets (where the major faux pas was that the expected purchase price was all over the internet), layoffs in 2014 (where the people being let go became aware because they were no longer listed in the directory, yet they were still sitting in their office and hadn’t been told yet), the Apollo project (don’t bother looking for it, all reference was scrubbed from the internal system after millions of dollars in regret money, thanks DZ), the Conoco purchase (where one exec was released because of opposition to the deal) and finally the Husky purchase. After every one of these events, executives left the company, probably aware of the poor decision and upcoming ramifications. Some were smart and capitalized on these sales by aligning with other companies to purchases the assets. Even the CEO skedaddled when the market obviously didn’t agree with the Conoco decision. And now, another exec, who said he was instrumental in the agreement to buy Husky, retired just prior to the finalization of the ‘merger’.
Folks, it’s looking like the retention bonuses are to continue the façade that it looks like this company’s leadership is all in agreement with the recent purchase. The reality is, they have been coerced by money to stay and project the farce that there is executive support and the illusion that this last deal was a good one. It’s purely a marketing strategy to look like a cohesive company. When the agreement timeline runs out, it will be interesting to see who remain (even me). Well, luckily investors can’t be bought the same way