Oklahoma Inc.: A preview and a review

Each year, we examine some of the state's high-profile, and some less well-known, companies that trade on Wall Street. And each November, I tuck away a copy of Oklahoma Inc. in a file drawer.

As we anticipate this year's publication, it seems an apt time to take a look back at some of those sections and firms of former years.

One need only flip back the pages a dozen years to see the rise, fall and departure of firms.

In 2000, the state's top public companies included Bartlesville-based Phillips Petroleum (now merged with Conoco and moved to Houston) and Kerr-McGee Corp. (swallowed by Anadarko and moved to Houston).

But at the top of those old rankings sits Devon Energy, an American Stock Exchange traded company that had then just joined the S&P 500 Index. Now, of course, Devon Energy Center is the most visible monument to capitalism in town.

A decade ago, the post-2001 recession list of state public companies had shrunk by more than a dozen, but many of the familiar companies remained: Helmerich & Payne, Unit Corp., Sonic Corp.; and BOK Financial Corp. were among the top performers. Among those on the 2002 list that have been absorbed or merely moved off the stock exchange: Pre-Paid Legal Services; Local Financial Corp.; Kinark; Six Flags and Dobson Communications.