Oil tycoon sold his company for $26 billion this year, but died before the deal closed

• Autry Stephens agreed to sell his company for $26 billion in cash and stock in February.

• The oil tycoon was set to become one of the world’s 100 richest people but died this month.

• Stephens wasn’t fussed about the lavish life, and his family would still benefit if the deal went through.

Autry Stephens closed a deal in February that would have made him America’s richest oilman and one of the world’s 100 richest people, but he died before it closed.

The founder and owner of Endeavor Energy Resources agreed to sell the Texas oil producer to Diamondback Energy for $26 billion this spring. A cancer diagnosis spurred his decision to cash in, he told The Wall Street Journal at the time. Stephens was 86 when he died last week.

The planned merger, still expected to close in the fourth quarter, added $17.5 billion to Stephens’ net worth this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The late entrepreneur’s fortune has nearly quadrupled since January, from about $6 billion to $23.4 billion, placing him 85th on the list.

Only 14 people on Bloomberg’s rich list have made more money this year, and none of them rank lower than 18th. Stephens even surpassed the world’s richest man, Elon Musk ($15.1 billion), as well as former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer ($16.3 billion) and Asia’s richest man , Mukesh Ambani (with $16.4 billion).

According to Bloomberg, members of Stephens’ immediate family are the sole owners of Endeavor after its demise. They stand to receive the $8 billion in cash and 117.3 million Diamondback shares in the deal instead. The stake was worth about $17 billion even before the tie-up was announced, and is now valued at $22 billion because of the rise in Diamondback’s stock price.

Stephens may have decided that, given his poor health and the lack of an obvious heir to take over the family business, it was best to secure his family’s future.

The oil tycoon was still a multibillionaire when he died, but he apparently shares investor Warren Buffett’s taste for the simple life.

Stephens grew up on a peanut and watermelon farm, drove a beat-up Toyota Land Cruiser and eschewed private jets for cheap flights with Southwest Airlines, the Journal reported.

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