Devon Energy (DVN -0.67%) had very humble beginnings. In 1971, oil industry veteran John Nichols and his son Larry founded the company. At the time, it had five people and no assets. Fast-forward more than a half-century, and Devon has grown into one of the country's largest oil and gas producers.

The oil company went public in 1988 on the American Stock Exchange. Here's a look at how many shares you would own today if you'd bought one at its IPO more than 35 years ago.

Going public allowed Devon Energy to use its stock as currency to acquire a long list of oil and gas companies over the years. Notable deals included buying PennzEnergy for $723.4 million in stock in 1999 for its position in the Gulf of Mexico, Mitchell Energy for $3.1 billion in cash and stock in 2001 for U.S. natural gas assets, and Ocean Energy for $3.5 billion in stock in 2003 for deepwater sites in the Gulf. The company once had assets that spanned the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and Azerbaijan.

Devon Energy's growing operations helped boost the value of its stock. That enabled the company to transfer its listing to the New York Stock Exchange in 2004, the same year it completed a 2-for-1 stock split. As a result of that split, an investor who bought one share of Devon at its IPO would now own two shares.

However, Devon has since sold off all its international operations and offshore position. That has enabled it to focus on building a leading multibasin onshore position in the United States. It did that through continued M&A. The most notable deal was its $12 billion all-stock merger-of-equals transaction with WPX Energy in 2021, which created a leading U.S. onshore oil and gas producer.

Unfortunately, all that wheeling and dealing hasn't paid off as well as investors might have hoped. While Devon's stock has gained over 1,000% since its IPO, that's only about 7% annually. Devon's historical performance shows that mergers, especially those funded with stock, don't always pay off for shareholders.