Gulf management and directors took the view that the Mesa bid represented an undervaluation of the Gulf business as a long-term going concern and that it was not in the interest of Gulf shareholders. James Lee, Gulf's CEO and chairman, even claimed during the November 1983 shareholders meeting to address the Mesa ownership that Pickens' royalty trust idea was nothing more than a "get-rich-quick scheme" that would undermine the corporation's profit potential in the coming decades. Gulf, therefore, sought to resist Pickens by various means, including refiling as a Delaware corporation, voiding the ability of shareholders to cumulatively vote (fearing that Pickens would use his shares to gain control of the board) and listening to offers from Ashland Oil (which would double Gulf's price from its pre-Mesa level), General Electric (two years before it took over the media company NBC/RKO) and finally Chevron to act as its white knight in late 1984. Gulf divested many of its worldwide operating subsidiaries and then merged with Chevron by the spring of 1985. The Mesa group of investors was reported to have made a profit of $760 million ($ million today) when it assigned its Gulf shares to Chevron. Pickens has claimed that after realizing a more than doubling of stock appreciation for Gulf shareholders (as well as its management that fought him at every turn), Mesa's shares were the last to be paid out by Chevron.