In Re:

This episode explores the major lawsuits that have shaped Facebook—now Meta—and how they influenced the company’s evolution. It traces legal battles across privacy, competition, and user protection, highlighting recurring themes of data misuse and market dominance. 

In this episode of In Re, we dive deep into one of the most dramatic and costly legal showdowns in American corporate history — Pennzoil v. Texaco.

We explore:

• The high-stakes players: How oil giants Pennzoil and Texaco collided in a bitter fight over a third company — Getty Oil.
• The courtroom drama: We break down the trial that led to the largest civil verdict in U.S. history at the time, $10.53 billion.
• The aftermath: What happens when a company owes billions? We track the fallout, from appeals to Texaco’s stunning bankruptcy filing, and the eventual settlement.

This case wasn’t just about contracts — it was about corporate ambition, courtroom theatrics, and a legal precedent that reshaped deal-making in America.

Before the $13 billion verdict, there was a tangled web of boardroom intrigue, handshake deals, and the fight for control of Getty Oil.

In Part 1 of our deep-dive series on Pennzoil v. Texaco, we cover all the background facts that led to one of the most dramatic business trials in history:

• Getty Oil’s fractured ownership structure (and the famous “3/7ths” shares)
• How Pennzoil thought it had a binding deal with Getty
• Why Texaco swooped in with a competing bid
• And how this corporate chess match set the stage for the trial of the century