Popular Discussions

NEW ORLEANS – Tony Hayward, who became the face of BP's flailing efforts to contain the massive Gulf oil spill, will step down as chief executive in October and be offered a job with the company's joint venture in Russia, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.


The person spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made by the British company's board, which was meeting Monday in London to decide Hayward's fate. The decision is the board's to make, and it was unclear if it had formally done so.

It's not yet clear what Hayward's role will be with TNK-BP. He left the board meeting Monday without speaking to reporters, climbing into a silver Lexus that sped off.

BP owns half of the oil firm, which is Russia's third-largest.

It was once run by American Bob Dudley, now the odds-on favorite to replace Hayward as BP CEO. After Hayward made a series of missteps, including telling reporters he wanted his life back as Gulf residents struggled to deal with the spill, Dudley took over as BP's point man in dealing with it. He was in London Monday with other board members.

Hayward was called back to London a month ago after a bruising encounter with a Congressional committee and has since kept a low profile.

"We're getting to the end of the situation," said David Battersby at Redmayne Bentley Stockbrokers. "To draw a line under it, they need a new chief executive."

In New York, BP shares rose almost 5 percent Monday as the stock market anticipated a formal announcement about Hayward. Shares of BP PLC rose $1.82, or 4.9 percent, to $38.68 in midday trading in New York. BP shares closed up 4.6 percent Monday at 416.95 pence in London.

The BP board would have to approve a change in company leadership, and there is persistent speculation that chairman Karl-Henric Svanberg, who moved into the post on Jan. 1, is also likely to lose his job later this year.

The one-day board meeting comes a day before BP announces earnings for the second quarter. That report is expected to include preliminary provisions for the cost of the Gulf disaster, with analysts saying that could be as high as $30 billion.

"BP notes the press speculation over the weekend regarding potential changes to management and the charge for the costs of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP confirms that no final decision has been made on these matters," the company said in a statement Monday to the London Stock Exchange before trading began.

Shares were up 2.6 percent at 408.95 pence ($6.33) in midafternoon trading in London.

Hayward, 53, who has a Ph.D in geology, had been a well-regarded chief executive. But his promise when he took the job in 2007 to focus on safety "like a laser" came back to haunt him after an April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and unleashed a deep-sea gusher of oil.

Hayward's early attempts to shift blame to the rig operator, Transocean, failed to take the heat off BP. Later remarks that the amount of oil pouring into the Gulf was "tiny" compared to its volume of water and Hayward's whining that he would "like my life back" made him an object of scorn. That emotion turned to fury when Gulf residents heard that Hayward spent a day at a fancy English sailing race in which his yacht was competing at the height of the disaster.

David Cumming, head of U.K. equities at Standard Life Investments, said the board's reported intention to remove Hayward is an act of "political appeasement."

"I think they have taken view that his departure will relieve some of the political and media pressure in the U.S. and help BP rebuild its U.S. reputation," Cumming told BBC radio.

Chief executives inevitably often are sacked for corporate failure, whether or not they had any direct responsibility for what happened, said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners in London.

"Neither should we forget that Mr. Hayward has been master of his own downfall and that by those sometimes unfortunate remarks and attitude displayed in public he made his own situation all the more worse," Wheeldon said.

Dudley has so far avoided any gaffes. Currently BP's managing director, Dudley grew up partly in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He spent 20 years at Amoco Corp., which merged with BP in 1998, and lost out to Hayward on the CEO's slot three years ago.

BP says the cost of dealing with the spill had reached nearly $4 billion by July 19, but that it was too early to quantify the eventual total cost.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said BP's attitude about making things right was more important than who is running the company.

"BP, from I think everybody's perspective, made a very bad mistake," he said. "I think what the world expects from BP is an acknowledgment that something was done wrong. I think BP has a long way to go to gain the trust of the people."

Hayward makes 1.045 million pounds ($1.6 million) a year as the company's head, according to its annual report. In 2009, he received a performance bonus of more than 2 million pounds plus other remuneration, bringing his total pay package to over 4 million pounds.

BP is the process of selling assets to raise $10 billion toward a $20 billion fund that will finance the clean up of the mess in the Gulf. BP announced last week that it had sold properties in the United States, Canada and Egypt to Apache Corp. for $7 billion.

Under pressure from President Barack Obama, BP has also announced that it will pay no more dividends to shareholders this year. That move disappointed some 18 million Britons, many of them retirees, who hold stock in what used to be the country's largest company.

Most people throw away old cell phones without a second thought. Steven Ortiz is not like most teenagers. This 17-year-old Californian went on Craigslist to turn a used cell phone a friend gave him into a Porsche convertible. Harvard Business School, watch out for this guy.


Ortiz's story brings to mind the similar accomplishment of Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian who started "Craigslist swapping" with a red paperclip in 2005 and eventually ended up with a two-story farmhouse. Through his blog and the kindness of strangers, MacDonald made 14 swaps over the classifieds website, upgrading one item to a more valuable one until he ended up with a house a year later.

Craigslist isn't so different from a newspaper's classified section: People list items they no longer want for whatever reason. But sometimes instead of selling these items for paltry amounts of cash, online users barter with each other. For example, one person might be willing to part with a record collection. But that bin of old vinyl might be a treasure trove to someone with an extra bicycle on their hands. So people email back and forth, meet up, swap, and oftentimes end up owning something far more valuable than what they started with.

Unlike MacDonald and his red paperclip website, however, Ortiz didn't publicize his efforts—he did it quietly on his own. It took him one year longer than MacDonald, but the Glendale, CA, youth managed to turn an outdated phone into a 2000 Porsche Boxster S.

Ortiz spends five to six hours each day searching Craigslist for the right kind of swaps. Over the last two years and 14 trades, he's had an eclectic assortment of items in his possession, including an iPod touch, various dirt bikes, a MacBook Pro, a golf cart, and a 1975 Ford Bronco. It was the Bronco that allowed him to become the only kid at his high school who drives his own convertible Porsche to class.

Although his parents are proud of him and expect a great future for him in business, Ortiz is sad to report that some of his relatives think he's a swindler. "People just make these trades," he told the Whittier Daily News. "I am not lying to anyone."

More and more people are using the Internet as a virtual swap meet—only one with bigger and more specialized payoffs. For instance, Ortiz ended up with a 1987 Toyota 4Runner at one point because a musician decided he needed the MacBook that Ortiz was offering more than he needed the car.

In fact, when Ortiz made his final swap to get the sports car, he was actually trading down. After driving around the 1975 Ford Bronco—worth around $15,000—for a while, Steven decided to trade it for the renown of being a teenage Porsche owner, even though the Boxster was worth only $9,000.

In addition to phones, cars, and dirt bikes, some people are even turning to Craigslist for house swaps. No, families aren't trading house deeds over the Internet, but many vacationers have taken to switching homes as a cost-effective, comfortable way of avoiding hotels. Similarly, there is a rideshare section on Craigslist where car owners embarking on long trips offer strangers a ride in exchange for splitting gas costs.

Speaking of gas costs, Ortiz has changed his mind about keeping the Porsche. Hefty maintenance bills have dampened his excitement over the roadster, and he's looking to trade the Porsche for a more sensible Cadillac Escalade before too long.

NEW ORLEANS – BP finally choked off the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday — 85 days and up to 184 million gallons after the crisis unfolded — then began a tense 48 hours of watching to see whether the capped well would hold or blow a new leak.


To the relief of millions of people along the Gulf Coast, the big, billowing brown cloud of crude at the bottom of the sea disappeared from the underwater video feed for the first time since the disaster began in April, as BP closed the last of three openings in the 75-ton cap lowered onto the well earlier this week.

"Finally!" said Renee Brown, a school guidance counselor visiting Pensacola Beach, Fla., from London, Ky. "Honestly, I'm surprised that they haven't been able to do something sooner, though."

But the company stopped far short of declaring victory over the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history and one of the nation's worst environmental disasters, a catastrophe that has killed wildlife and threatened the livelihoods of fishermen, restaurateurs and oil industry workers from Texas to Florida.

Now begins a waiting period during which engineers will monitor pressure gauges and watch for signs of leaks elsewhere in the well. In the worst-case scenario, pressure from the rising oil could fracture the well and cause leaks to erupt across an area of the seafloor too large to cap.

If engineers see any sign of a new leak, the cap will be reopened, allowing oil to spill into the sea again.

Even if the well holds out for the whole two days, the vents will be opened again and oil released while engineers conduct a seismic survey of the ocean floor to make sure oil and gas aren't breaking out of the well into the bedrock, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the disaster.

"For the people living on the Gulf, I'm certainly not going to guess their emotions," BP vice president Kent Wells said. "I hope they're encouraged there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. But we have to be careful. Depending on what the test shows us, we may need to open this well back up."

Either way, the cap is only a temporary fix until a relief well can be drilled into the bedrock and cement and mud can be pumped into the broken well deep underground, creating a seal that will hold more securely. BP expects to complete a relief well by mid-August, and perhaps as early as the end of this month.

Thursday's news elicited joy mixed with skepticism from wary Gulf Coast residents following months of false starts, setbacks and failed attempts. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley's face lit up when he heard the oil flow had stopped.

"That's great. I think a lot of prayers were answered today," he said.

"I don't believe that. That's a lie. It's a (expletive) lie," said Stephon LaFrance, an oysterman in Louisiana's oil-stained Plaquemines Parish who has been out of work for weeks. "I don't believe they stopped that leak. BP's trying to make their self look good."

President Barack Obama called it a positive sign, but cautioned: "We're still in the testing phase."

The stoppage came 85 days, 16 hours and 25 minutes after the first report April 20 of an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers. Somewhere between 94 million and 184 million gallons spilled into the Gulf, according to government estimates.

The breakthrough came after a string of failed attempts by BP to contain the leak, including the use of a giant concrete-and-steel box that became clogged with ice-like crystals; a colossal stopper and siphon tube that trapped very little oil; and an effort to jam the well by pumping in mud and shredded rubber.

Wells said the oil stopped flowing into the water at 2:25 p.m. CDT after engineers gradually dialed back the amount of crude escaping through the last of three vents in the cap, an 18-foot-high metal stack of pipes and valves.

On the video feed, the violently churning cloud of oil and gas coming out of a narrow tube thinned, and tapered off. Suddenly, there were a few puffs of oil, surrounded by cloudy dispersant BP was pumping on top. Then, there was nothing.

"I am very pleased that there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, I'm really excited there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico," Wells said.

BP stock, which has mainly tumbled since the spill began, closed nearly 8 percent higher on the New York Stock Exchange after the news.

The cap is designed to stop oil from flowing into the sea, either by bottling it up inside the well, or capturing it and piping it to ships on the surface. Allen said if the cap holds, it will probably be used to pipe oil to the surface, with the option of employing it to shut the well completely if a hurricane threatens.

The testing of the cap went ahead after a daylong day imposed by the federal government because of last-minute fears that the operation would cause a rupture that could make the disaster worse.

Even if the cap works, this is not the end of the crisis by any means. The drilling of the relief wells continues. After that, the Gulf Coast faces a monumental cleanup and restoration that could take years.

"It feels good, but I mean, the damage is already done. That's the problem," said a somber Manuel Meyer, a deckhand helping to unload and box blue crabs in Hopedale, La. "I mean, they can clean it up, but they're finding oil popping up everywhere." He added: "It's going to continue for several years, several years, and it ain't going to do nothing but get worse before it gets better."

Nine-year-old Lena Durden threw up her hands in jubilation when her mother told her the oil was stopped.

"God, that's wonderful," said Yvonne Durden, a Mobile-area native who now lives in Seattle and brought her daughter to the coast for a visit. "We came here so she could swim in the water and see it in case it's not here next time."

Randall Luthi, president of the Washington-based National Ocean Industries Association, a trade group representing the offshore oil industry, said: "This is by far the best news we've heard in 86 days. You can bet that industry officials and their families are taking a big sigh here."

LeBron James walked away from the comforts of home to chase an NBA championship.

Perhaps the most hysterically-hyped free agent in sports history, James announced Thursday night on national TV that he plans to leave Cleveland to join the Miami Heat for a chance to play with Olympic teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

It’s a power trio that could rock the league for years to come.



“I can’t say it was always in my plans, because I never thought it was possible,” said James, who wrestled with his decision for weeks. “But the things that the Miami Heat franchise have done, to free up cap space and be able to put themselves in a position this summer to have all three of us, it was hard to turn down.

“Those are two great players, two of the greatest players that we have in this game today.”

Add in James, and Miami has a three-headed monster.

Ending weeks of round-the-clock speculation, the two-time MVP said he was uncertain until the eleventh hour before deciding that the only way he could fulfill his dreams of winning multiple championships was to leave his home state and a city that hasn’t sprayed championship champagne in 46 years.

See ya, Cleveland.

Sorry, New York, Chicago, New Jersey, Los Angeles and all you other NBA cities who came calling.

Hello, South Beach.

“It’s going to give me the best opportunity to win,” James said. “We’re going to be a real good team.”

That’s not what Cleveland wanted to hear.

Fans poured out of the same downtown bars and restaurants that have thrived with James around in frustration moments after the announcement. A few set fire to his No. 23 jersey while others threw rocks at the 10-story-tall billboard featuring James with his head tossed back and arms pointing skyward.

“We Are All Witnesses,” the mural says.

This was something Cleveland never thought it would see.

Cavs owner Dan Gilbert sent a blistering email decrying James’ actions.

“As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier,” Gilbert wrote. “This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his ‘decision’ unlike anything ever ‘witnessed’ in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment. Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.

“The self-declared former ‘King’ will be taking the ‘curse’ with him down south. And until he does ‘right’ by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.

“Just watch.”

Olympic teammates four years ago in Beijing, James, Bosh and Wade all helped deliver gold medals while playing for the U.S.

This time, the superstars will pursue another gold prize - an NBA trophy - the one Wade got in 2006, the one that James and Bosh have yet to touch.

“Winning is a huge thing for me,” said James, who left more than $30 million on the table by not signing with Cleveland.

It’s a huge victory for the Heat, which got Wade and Bosh, a five-time All-Star with the Toronto Raptors, to agree to take less money on Wednesday so James could join them. Heat president Pat Riley was able to corral the top three stars in an unprecedented free-agent class.

So while Miami is building a dynasty, Cleveland is devastated.

In a city scorned for generations by some of sports’ biggest letdowns, James’ long-awaited words that he is leaving represented a defeat perhaps unlike any other.

“The Decision,” the name of the prime-time, hour-long special James and his team of advisers brokered with ESPN, now joins “The Drive,” “The Shot,” “The Fumble,” and “The Move” in Cleveland’s sports hall of shame.

Cleveland fans, so accustomed to disappointment, have been let down again - this time, by one of their owns sons.

Not long after James’ decision was announced, one of his jerseys was shown being burned in the city’s streets.

“I can’t get involved in that,” James said. “I wanted to do what was best for LeBron James … At the end of the day, I feel awful. I feel even worse that I wasn’t able to bring an NBA championship to that city. I never wanted to leave Cleveland. My heart will always be around that area. But I also felt like this is the greatest challenge for me, is to move on.”

James’ decision ends nearly two years of posturing and positioning by teams hoping to add the 6-foot-8, 260-pound physical force of nature to their roster. He famously announced at New York’s Madison Square Garden in November of 2008 that “July 1, 2010, is going to be a big day.”

He wasn’t kidding. When the clock struck 12:01 a.m. last Thursday, a free-agent frenzy unlike any before it - in any professional sport - got under way with the enough speculation, rumor and second-by-second intrigue to last a lifetime.

March may be madness, but this was a year’s drama crammed into eight days.

James, Wade and Bosh were wined and dined by suitors who spared no expense to make them feel special. It was billionaires chasing millionaires, and depending on your view, it was either a shining moment for the NBA or a travesty.

Commissioner David Stern probably didn’t mind any of it. The league stayed front and center in newspapers, on the Internet and in the blogosphere, leaving the World Cup, Wimbledon, Major League Baseball and other goings on fighting for scraps.

Last week, the Heat, Cavaliers, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers and Chicago Bulls converged on Cleveland to make their sales pitch to the league’s most wanted man. The Cavs only had to drive across town to meet with in the business offices of the local superstar, who grew up in a single-parent home in the Akron projects and has known no other pro basketball home.

The Cavs appealed to James’ loyalty, his Buckeye roots and the fact that this is where he is raising his two young sons, to keep him. They hired Byron Scott as their new coach last week.

None of it worked.

“We believe in this team, this organization, this community, and what we will do to compete at the highest level,” Cavs general manager Chris Grant said in a statement that did not mention James. “We believe in the new coach and leader we have in Byron Scott, and the world class basketball organization and positive and strong culture we’ve established.”

New York devoted two years to trying to snare James.

“We are disappointed that LeBron James did not pick the New York Knicks, but we respect his decision,” Knicks president Donnie Walsh said.

New Jersey couldn’t land him despite having rapper Jay-Z, a good friend of James, as a part owner.

“We have a vision of a championship team and need to invest wisely and for the long term,” Nets billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov said. “Fortunately, we have more than one plan to reach success, and, as I have found in all areas of my business, that is key to achieving it.”

And Bulls general manager Gar Forman said he was convinced his organization “made the strongest of bids to acquire LeBron James during this free agency period.”

Wade has shared the spotlight in the Heat locker room before, doing so when O’Neal was there for the 2006 title run. James said that if not for Wade being willing to make this megadeal happen, the trio wouldn’t be together.

“D-Wade, he’s the unselfish guy here,” James said. “To be able to have Chris Bosh and LeBron James, to welcome us to his team, it’s not about an individual here.

“It’s about a team.”

They turned that downtown office building into a public parade of billionaires and builders of dynasties, entertainment icons and what-are-they-doing-here Clippers. The big, wide world took turns marching into the heart of Cleveland to make dramatic presentations to a hometown hero in a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers.


Here was Team LeBron making the headquarters of James’ fledgling marketing company LRMR into the Grand Central Station of a city’s hope and heartbreak. And perhaps the Cavaliers showed why they best know the biggest free agent in sports history when they delivered a presentation designed as much to steal a 14-year-old away from a traveling baseball team than woo a self-proclaimed disciple of Warren Buffett.

Through it all, James’ old team probably played it perfectly. The Cavs understood their audience the best: LeBron James(notes) and his high school buddies, 25-year-olds trying to play the part of a global corporation but ultimately still reached at a meaningful level with cartoons and locker-room humor.

A week ago, most teams believed they were chasing the Chicago Bulls for James, but that’s flipped in the past days and hours. “My gut tells me Cleveland,” an executive in the James chase told Yahoo! Sports on Sunday. “From what I hear now, it’s his decision alone. No outside influences.”

Officials from teams who made these presentations went along with the charade, but some questioned the legitimacy of the process based on the kinds of questions that were thrown back to them. “It didn’t take long to realize you’re dealing with 25-year-old kids,” one source said.

Cleveland executives are still on edge, but privately feeling far more confident now than they did weeks ago. As much as anything, William Wesley has been muscled out of the process in the past week or so, with teams insisting that communication to James goes directly through his business manager Maverick Carter. So unnerved over World Wide Wes’ ubiquitous presence in the process, Carter had to go public to undermine Wesley’s credibility and proclaim his own power.

The wresting back of power into James’ Akron-based camp goes a long way to securing the Cavs’ chances for re-signing James. This could preserve James’ future with the Cavaliers, because those surrounding him will eagerly validate his decision to take more money, stay home and keep them all relevant in his career and life.

Team LeBron turned this courtship of presentations into a marketing tool for the breadth of his brand, into a visual of the heavy-hitter suitors ultimately being rebuffed out of James’ loyalty and love for Cleveland. This entire episode made for around-the-clock news and Twitter frenzy. From the offices of LRMR, James has delivered a relentless reminder that’s he’s the world’s most wanted man in high tops. He needed the threat of leaving, even if there was never truly the intent.

What’s more, James and his guys have ramped up the launch of a new personal website and foreshadowed it as the place to find out first the big news on his free-agent choice – one that possibly won’t be made until he’s done marketing the LeBron James Skills Camp in Akron through Wednesday.

In the end, the Cavs can still offer James the most money, and no city will celebrate his arrival more than Cleveland will rejoice his refusing to leave. Cleveland fans felt like they had lost him, like he was going to get swept away into the world beyond Northeast Ohio. Something changed in the playoffs. Always, there was a sense that if he left there, the onus would be on the organization; that it didn’t do enough, that it didn’t surround him with the proper talent. Only this time, the Cavs did. James’ no-show performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Boston scarred him everywhere. He hadn’t delivered on the burden of an MVP, and suddenly the narrative of the story had dramatically changed.

Coach Mike Brown was fired, general manager Danny Ferry was pushed out and an awkward pursuit of Tom Izzo ensued under owner Dan Gilbert’s watch. Everything about James’ future in Cleveland felt so flimsy. In the end, Gilbert did get right the hiring of Byron Scott as coach, a man with an ability to make people feel confident about situations, to feel confidence in his presence.

Despite sources saying Scott’s old New Jersey point guard Jason Kidd(notes) didn’t back down from past criticisms when called by Cleveland officials, the unwavering praise of Chris Paul(notes) went a long way with the Cavs. Scott is a smart coach for James, a balance of old-school sensibility with a willingness to give his superstars complete freedom to dictate terms on the floor.

For all the New Jersey Nets’ promises of world treasures, the flashing of Pat Riley’s rings, the young talent of the Bulls and the calling of Madison Square Garden, this process has made some suitors skeptical of James’ seriousness. Even so, all the teams have to tell their fans that they had a great shot and wowed him and his buddies in the presentations.

Armed with a commitment from Amar’e Stoudemire(notes), the Knicks sent two executives to Cleveland on Saturday to run some cap numbers past James’ agent Leon Rose. James’ people have privately described the Knicks as a long shot, but New York has wisely tried to stay aggressive selling itself. For now, the Knicks are the one team with an All-Star caliber forward on the way.

The Knicks are willing to pay Stoudemire $100 million, something no one else with cap space is willing to do. New Jersey would take Stoudemire if James also promises to sign, a source said, but won’t meet his demands for a maximum contract as a solitary commitment.

Still, mostly this may turn out to be an exercise in lavishing LeBron James with what he craves the most: a lustful longing for his greatness. Deep down, LeBron had to walk out of those offices with an understanding that no one can make him a billionaire and no one can promise a circumstance much better than what he’s had in Cleveland these past seven seasons. For him to leave, there would be so much pressure to deliver a championship upon arrival, to honor the biggest free-agency score in history. And it leaves to you wonder whether he truly wants any of that.

LeBron James has always sold his hopes of wanting to conquer the world, of turning into a historically transcendent athlete and icon. All that sounds wonderful, but here’s what everyone does know: He’s going to be a wildly successful basketball player, maybe a five- or six-time MVP and, barring misfortune, an NBA champion.

And maybe most of all now, you get the idea that James is an overgrown teenager getting a few laughs with his buddies, driving home to Akron from this cattle call in Cleveland to watch cartoons, play video games and kill some time until he gives the nod to post the big news that maybe the rest of us should’ve known all along: He’s home.