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Enron
Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It
Enron Corporation
was founded in 1985 because of a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small
regional companies. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 20,000 staff and
was one of the world's major electricity, natural gas, communications and pulp and paper companies, with
claimed revenues of nearly $101 billion during 2000.[1] Fortune named Enron "America's Most Innovative
Company" for six consecutive years.
At the end of 2001, it was revealed that its reported financial condition was sustained by institutionalized,
systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud, known since as the Enron scandal. Enron has since become a
well-known example of willful corporate fraud and corruption. The scandal also brought into question the
accounting practices and activities of many corporations in the United States and was a factor in the enactment of
Enron logo
the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002. The scandal also affected the greater business world by causing the dissolution
Former type Public
of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm.[2]
Traded as NYSE: ENE
Enron filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York in late 2001 and selected Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Industry Energy
as its bankruptcy counsel. It ended its bankruptcy during November 2004, pursuant to a court-approved plan of
Fate Bankruptcy
reorganization. A new board of directors changed the name of Enron to Enron Creditors Recovery Corp., and
emphasized reorganizing and liquidating certain operations and assets of the pre-bankruptcy Enron.[3] On Predecessor InterNorth (Northern
September 7, 2006, Enron sold Prisma Energy International Inc., its last remaining business, to Ashmore Energy Natural Gas Company)
International Ltd. (now AEI).[4] Houston Natural Gas
merged in 1985
Successor Dynegy
Prisma Energy
Contents International
1 History Founded 1985 in Omaha,
1.1 Pre-merger origins (1925–1985) Nebraska, United States
1.1.1 InterNorth
Founder Kenneth Lay
1.1.2 Houston Natural Gas
1.1.3 Merger Defunct 2001
1.2 Post-merger rise (1985–1991) Headquarters 1400 Smith Street
1.3 1991–2000 Houston, Texas, United
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History
InterNorth
One of Enron's primary predecessors was the Northern Natural Gas Company, which was formed in 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska just a few months after Black
Tuesday. The low cost of natural gas and cheap labor supply during the Great Depression helped to fuel the company's early beginnings. The company doubled in
size by 1932 and was able to bring the first natural gas to Minnesota. Over the next 50 years, Northern expanded even more as it acquired many energy companies
and created new divisions within. It was reorganized in 1979 as the main subsidiary of a holding company, InterNorth, which was a diversified energy and energy-
related products company. Although most of the acquisitions conducted were successful, some ended poorly. InterNorth competed with Cooper Industries over a
hostile takeover of Crouse-Hinds Company, who manufactured electrical products. InterNorth was ultimately unsuccessful as Cooper bought out Crouse-Hinds.
Cooper and InterNorth feuded over numerous suits over the course of the takeover that were eventually settled after the transaction was completed. The subsidiary
Northern Natural Gas operated the largest natural gas pipeline company in North America. By the 1980s, InterNorth became a major force for natural gas
production, transmission and marketing as well as for natural gas liquids, and was an innovator in the plastics industry.[5] In 1983, InterNorth merged with the
Belco Petroleum Company, a Fortune 500 oil exploration and development company founded by Arthur Belfer.[6]
Merger
InterNorth in its conservative success became a target of corporate takeovers, the most prominent being corporate raider Irwin Jacobs.[8] InterNorth CEO Sam
Segnar, in searching for a company to merge with to fend off takeover attempts as a poison pill, discovered HNG. In May 1985, Internorth acquired HNG for $2.3
billion, 40% higher than the current market price,[9] in order to avoid the corporate takeover attempt. The combined assets of the two companies would create the
second largest gas pipeline system at the time in the United States.[10] Internorth’s north-south pipelines that served Iowa and Minnesota complemented HNG’s
Florida and California east-west pipelines well.[9]
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1991–2000
Over the course of the 1990s, Enron made a few changes to its business plan that greatly improved the perceived
profitability of the company. Firstly, Enron invested heavily in overseas assets, specifically energy. Another major shift was
the gradual transition of focus from a producer of energy to a company that acted more like an investment firm and
sometimes a hedge fund, making profits off the margins of the products it traded. These products were traded through the
Gas Bank concept, now called the Enron Finance Corp. headed by Skilling.[8]
Enron Complex in Downtown
Houston.
Operations as a trading firm
With the success of the Gas Bank trading natural gas, Skilling looked to expand the horizons of his division, Enron Capital
& Trade. Skilling hired Andrew Fastow in 1990 to help with this.
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Data management
As fiber optic technology progressed in the 1990s, multiple companies, including Enron, attempted to make money by "keeping the continuing network costs low",
which was done by owning their personal network.[11] In 1997, FTV Communications LLC, a limited liability company formed by Enron subsidiary FirstPoint
Communications, Inc., Williams Communications Group, Inc. and Touch America.[12] FTV constructed a 1,380 mile fiber optic network between Portland and Las
Vegas.[12] In 1998, Enron constructed a building in a rundown area of Las Vegas near E Sahara, building right over the "backbone" of fiber optic cables providing
service to technology companies nationwide.[13] The location had the ability to send "the entire Library of Congress anywhere in the world within minutes" and
could stream "video to the whole state of California".[13] The location was also more protected from natural disasters than areas such as Los Angeles or the East
Coast.[13] According to Wall Street Daily, "Enron had a secret" and that they "wanted to trade bandwidth like it traded oil, gas, electricity, etc. It launched a secret
plan to build an enormous amount of fiber optic transmission capacity in Las Vegas ... it was all part of Enron’s plan to essentially own the internet",[14] essentially,
Enron sought to have all US internet service providers rely on their Nevada facility to supply bandwidth, which Enron would sell in a fashion similar to other
commodities.[15]
In January 2000, Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling announced to analysts that they were going to open trading for their own "high-speed fiber-optic networks that
form the backbone for Internet traffic". Investors quickly bought Enron stock following the announcement "as they did with most things Internet-related at the
time", with stock prices rising from $40 per share in January 2000 to $70 per share in March, peaking at $90 in the summer of 2000. Enron executives obtained
windfall gains from the rising stock prices, with a total of $924 million of stocks sold by high-lever Enron employees between 2000 and 2001. Head of Enron
Broadband Services, Kenneth Rice, sold 1 million shares himself, earning about $70 million in returns. As prices of existing fiber optic cables plummeted due to the
vast oversupply of the system, with only 5% of the 40 million miles being active wires, Enron purchased the inactive "dark fibers", expecting to buy them for cheap
and then score a profit as the need for more usage by internet providers increased, with Enron expecting to lease its acquired dark fibers in 20 year contracts to
providers. However, Enron's accounting would use estimates to determine how much their dark fibers would be worth when they were "lit" and apply those
estimates to their current income, adding exaggerated revenue to their accounts since transactions were not yet made and it was not known if the cables would ever
be active. Enron's trading with other energy companies within the broadband market was its attempt to lure large telecommunications companies, such as Verizon
Communications, into its broadband scheme to create its own new market.[16]
By the second quarter of 2001, Enron Broadband Services was reporting losses. On March 12, 2001, a proposed 20-year deal between Enron and Blockbuster Inc.
to stream movies on demand over Enron's connections was cancelled, with Enron shares dropping from $80 per share in mid-February 2001 to below $60 the
week after the deal was killed. The branch of the company that Jeffrey Skilling "said would eventually add $40 billion to Enron's stock value" added only about
$408 million in revenue for Enron in 2001, with the company's broadband arm closed shortly after its meager second quarter earnings report in July 2001.[16]
Following the bankruptcy of Enron, telecommunications holdings were sold for "pennies on the dollar".[13] In 2002, Rob Roy of Switch Communications purchased
Enron's Nevada facility in an auction only attended by Roy since Enron's "fiber plans were so secretive that few people even knew about the auction", with the
facility selling for only $930,000.[13][14] Following the sale, Switch expanded to control "the biggest data centers in the world".[14]
Overseas expansion
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Enron, seeing stability after the merger, began to look overseas for new possible energy opportunities in 1991. Enron's first such opportunity was a natural gas
power plant utilizing cogeneration that the company built in Teesside, UK.[5][9] The power plant was so large it could produce up to 3% of the United Kingdom's
electricity demand with a capacity of over 1,875 megawatts.[17] Seeing the success in England, the company developed and diversified its assets worldwide under
the name of Enron International (EI), headed by former HNG executive Rebecca Mark. By 1994, EI's portfolio included assets in Philippines, Australia, Guatemala,
Germany, France, India, Argentina, the Caribbean, China, England, Colombia, Turkey, Bolivia, Brazil, Indonesia, Norway, Poland, and Japan. The division was
becoming a large share of earnings for Enron, contributing 25% of earnings in 1996. Mark and EI believed the water industry was the next market to be deregulated
by authorities and seeing the potential, searched for ways to enter the market, similar to PGE.
In 1998, Enron International acquired Wessex Water for $2.88 billion.[18] Wessex Water became the core asset of a new company, Azurix, which expanded to other
water companies. After Azurix's promising IPO in June 1999, Enron "sucked out over $1 billion in cash while loading it up with debt", according to Bethany
McLean and Peter Elkind, authors of The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron.[19]:250 Additionally, British water
regulators required Wessex to cut its rates by 12% starting in April 2000, and an upgrade was required of the utility's aging infrastructure, estimated at costing over
a billion dollars.[19]:255 By the end of 2000 Azurix had an operating profit of less than $100 million and was $2 billion in debt.[19]:257 In August 2000, after Azurix
stock took a plunge following its earnings report,[19]:257 Mark resigned from Azurix and Enron.[20][21] Azurix assets, including Wessex, were eventually sold by
Enron.[22]
Enron was originally involved in transmitting and distributing electricity and natural gas throughout the United States. The company developed, built, and
operated power plants and pipelines while dealing with rules of law and other infrastructures worldwide. Enron owned a large network of natural gas pipelines,
which stretched ocean to ocean and border to border including Northern Natural Gas, Florida Gas Transmission, Transwestern Pipeline company and a
partnership in Northern Border Pipeline from Canada. The states of California, New Hampshire and Rhode Island had already passed power deregulation laws by
July 1996, the time of Enron's proposal to acquire Portland General Electric corporation.[23] During 1998, Enron began operations in the water sector, creating the
Azurix Corporation, which it part-floated on the New York Stock Exchange during June 1999. Azurix failed to become successful in the water utility market, and
one of its major concessions, in Buenos Aires, was a large-scale money-loser. After the relocation to Houston, many analysts criticized the Enron management as
being greatly in debt. Enron management pursued aggressive retribution against its critics, setting the pattern for dealing with accountants, lawyers, and the
financial media.
Enron grew wealthy due largely to marketing, promoting power, and its high stock price. Enron was named "America's Most Innovative Company" by the magazine
Fortune for six consecutive years, from 1996 to 2001.[24] It was on the Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" list during 2000, and had offices
that were stunning in their opulence. Enron was hailed by many, including labor and the workforce, as an overall great company, praised for its large long-term
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pensions, benefits for its workers and extremely effective management until the exposure of its corporate fraud. The first analyst to question the company's success
story was Daniel Scotto, an energy market expert at BNP Paribas, who issued a note in August 2001 entitled Enron: All stressed up and no place to go, which
encouraged investors to sell Enron stocks, although he only changed his recommendation on the stock from "buy" to "neutral".[25]
As was later discovered, many of Enron's recorded assets and profits were inflated or even wholly fraudulent and nonexistent. One example of fraudulent records
was during 1999 when Enron promised to repay Merrill Lynch & Co.'s investment with interest in order to show profit on its books. Debts and losses were put into
entities formed "offshore" that were not included in the company's financial statements, and other sophisticated and arcane financial transactions between Enron
and related companies were used to eliminate unprofitable entities from the company's books.
The company's most valuable asset and the largest source of honest income, the 1930s-era Northern Natural Gas company, was eventually purchased by a group of
Omaha investors, who relocated its headquarters back to Omaha; it is now a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy. NNG was established as
collateral for a $2.5 billion capital infusion by Dynegy Corporation when Dynegy was planning to buy Enron. When Dynegy examined Enron's financial records
carefully, they repudiated the deal and dismissed their CEO, Chuck Watson. The new chairman and CEO, the late Daniel Dienstbier, had been president of NNG
and an Enron executive at one time and was forced out of Enron by Ken Lay. Dienstbier was an acquaintance of Warren Buffett. NNG continues to be profitable
now.
As the scandal progressed, Enron share prices decreased from US $90.56 during the summer of 2000, to just
pennies.[26] Enron had been considered a blue chip stock investment, so this was an unprecedented event in the
financial world. Enron's demise occurred after the revelation that much of its profits and revenue were the result of
deals with special purpose entities (limited partnerships which it controlled). This meant that many of Enron's debts
and the losses that it suffered were not reported in its financial statements.
A rescue attempt by a similar, smaller energy company, Dynegy, failed during late November due to concerns about an
unexpected restatement of earnings. Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001. In addition, the scandal caused
the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which at the time was one of the "Big Five" - the world's foremost accounting firms.
Stock Price of Enron from August
The company was found guilty of obstruction of justice during 2002 for destroying documents related to the Enron 2000 to January 2002
audit. Since the SEC is not allowed to accept audits from convicted felons, Andersen was forced to stop auditing public
companies. Although the conviction was dismissed during 2005 by the Supreme Court, the damage to the Andersen
name has prevented it from reviving as a viable business even on a limited scale.
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Enron also withdrew a naming-rights deal with the Houston Astros Major League Baseball club to have its name associated with their new stadium, which was
known formerly as Enron Field (now Minute Maid Park).[27]
Accounting practices
Enron used a variety of deceptive, bewildering, and fraudulent accounting practices and tactics to cover its fraud in reporting Enron's financial information. Special
Purpose Entities were created to mask significant liabilities from Enron's financial statements. These entities made Enron seem more profitable than it actually
was, and created a dangerous spiral in which, each quarter, corporate officers would have to perform more and more financial deception to create the illusion of
billions of dollars in profit while the company was actually losing money.[28] This practice increased their stock price to new levels, at which point the executives
began to work on insider information and trade millions of dollars' worth of Enron stock. The executives and insiders at Enron knew about the offshore accounts
that were hiding losses for the company; however, the investors knew nothing of this. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow directed the team which created the
off-books companies, and manipulated the deals to provide himself, his family, and his friends with hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed revenue, at the
expense of the corporation for which he worked and its stockholders.
During 1999, Enron initiated EnronOnline, an Internet-based trading operation, which was used by virtually every
energy company in the United States. Enron president and chief operating officer Jeffrey Skilling began advocating a
novel idea: the company didn't really need any "assets". By promoting the company's aggressive investment strategy, he
helped make Enron the biggest wholesaler of gas and electricity, trading over $27 billion per quarter. The corporation's
financial claims, however, had to be accepted at face value. Under Skilling, Enron adopted mark to market accounting,
in which anticipated future profits from any deal were tabulated as if currently real. Thus, Enron could record gains
from what over time might turn out to be losses, as the company's fiscal health became secondary to manipulating its
stock price on Wall Street during the so-called Tech boom. But when a company's success is measured by
Arthur Andersen Witnesses
undocumented financial statements, actual balance sheets are inconvenient. Indeed, Enron's unscrupulous actions were
often gambles to keep the deception going and so increase the stock price. An advancing price meant a continued
infusion of investor capital on which debt-ridden Enron in large part subsisted (much like a financial "pyramid" or "Ponzi scheme"). Attempting to maintain the
illusion, Skilling verbally attacked Wall Street Analyst Richard Grubman,[29] who questioned Enron's unusual accounting practice during a recorded conference
telephone call. When Grubman complained that Enron was the only company that could not release a balance sheet along with its earnings statements, Skilling
replied, "Well, thank you very much, we appreciate that ... asshole." Though the comment was met with dismay and astonishment by press and public, it became an
inside joke among many Enron employees, mocking Grubman for his perceived meddling rather than Skilling's offensiveness.[30][31] When asked during his trial,
Skilling declared that industrial dominance and abuse was a global problem: "Oh yes, yes sure, it is."[19]
Post-bankruptcy
Enron initially planned to retain its three domestic pipeline companies as well as most of its overseas assets. However, before emerging from bankruptcy, Enron
sold its domestic pipeline companies as CrossCountry Energy for $2.45 billion [32] and later sold other assets to Vulcan Capital Management.[33]
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Enron sold its last business, Prisma Energy, during 2006, leaving Enron asset-less.[34] During early 2007, its name was changed to Enron Creditors Recovery
Corporation. Its goal is to repay the old Enron's remaining creditors and end Enron's affairs.
Azurix, the former water utility part of the company, remains under Enron ownership, although it is currently asset-less. It is involved in several litigations against
the government of Argentina claiming compensation relating to the negligence and corruption of the local governance during its management of the Buenos Aires
water concession during 1999, which resulted in substantial amounts of debt (approx. $620 million) and the eventual collapse of the branch.[35]
Soon after emerging from bankruptcy during November 2004, Enron's new board of directors sued 11 financial institutions for helping Lay, Fastow, Skilling and
others hide Enron's true financial condition. The proceedings were dubbed the "megaclaims litigation". Among the defendants were Royal Bank of Scotland,
Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. As of 2008, Enron has settled with all of the institutions, ending with Citigroup. Enron was able to obtain nearly $7.2 billion to
distribute to its creditors as a result of the megaclaims litigation.[36] As of December 2009, some claim and process payments were still being distributed.
As executives sold their shares, the price began to decrease. Investors were told to continue buying stock or hold steady if they already owned Enron because the
stock price would rebound during the near future. Kenneth Lay's strategy for responding to Enron's continuing problems was his demeanor. As he did many times,
Lay would issue a statement or make an appearance to calm investors and assure them that Enron was doing well.[37] In February 2001 an article by Bethany
McLean appeared in Fortune magazine questioning whether Enron stock was overvalued.[38]
By August 15, 2001, Enron's stock price had decreased to $42. Many of the investors still trusted Lay and believed that Enron would rule the market.[39] They
continued to buy or retain their stock as the equity value decreased. As October ended, the stock had decreased to $15. Many considered this a great opportunity to
buy Enron stock because of what Lay had been telling them in the media.[37]
Lay was accused of selling more than $70 million worth of stock at this time, which he used to repay cash advances on lines of credit. He sold another $29 million
worth of stock in the open market.[40] Also, Lay's wife, Linda, was accused of selling 500,000 shares of Enron stock totaling $1.2 million on November 28, 2001.
The money earned from this sale did not go to the family but rather to charitable organizations, which had already received pledges of contributions from the
foundation.[41] Records show that Mrs. Lay made the sale order sometime between 10:00 and 10:20 am. News of Enron's problems, including the millions of
dollars in losses they hid, became public about 10:30 that morning, and the stock price soon decreased to less than one dollar.
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Former Enron executive Paula Rieker was charged with criminal insider trading and sentenced to two years probation. Rieker obtained 18,380 Enron shares for
$15.51 a share. She sold that stock for $49.77 a share during July 2001, a week before the public was told what she already knew about the $102 million loss.[42] In
2002, after the tumultuous fall of Enron's external auditor, and management consultant, Andersen LLP, former Andersen Director, John M. Cunningham coined
the phrase, "We have all been Enroned."
The fallout resulted in both Lay and Skilling being convicted for conspiracy, fraud, and insider trading. Lay died before sentencing, Skilling got 24 years and 4
months and a $45 million penalty (later reduced). Fastow was sentenced to six years of jail time, and Lou Pai settled out of court for $31.5 million.[43]
As the periodical Public Citizen reported, "Because of Enron's new, unregulated power auction, the company's 'Wholesale Services' revenues quadrupled—- from
$12 billion in the first quarter of 2000 to $48.4 billion in the first quarter of 2001."[46]
After passage of the deregulation law, California had a total of 38 Stage 3 rolling blackouts declared, until federal regulators intervened during June 2001.[47] These
blackouts occurred as a result of a poorly designed market system that was manipulated by traders and marketers, as well as poor state management and
regulatory oversight. Subsequently, Enron traders were revealed as intentionally encouraging the removal of power from the market during California's energy
crisis by encouraging suppliers to shut down plants to perform unnecessary maintenance, as documented in recordings made at the time.[48][49] These acts
contributed to the need for rolling blackouts, which adversely affected many businesses dependent upon a reliable supply of electricity, and inconvenienced a large
number of retail customers. This scattered supply increased the price, and Enron traders were thus able to sell power at premium prices, sometimes up to a factor
of 20x its normal peak value.
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Products
Enron traded in more than 30 different products, including the following:
Petrochemicals
Plastics
Power
Pulp and paper
Steel
Weather Risk Management
Oil and LNG transportation
Broadband
Principal investments
Risk management for commodities
Shipping / freight
Streaming media
Water and wastewater
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It was also an extensive futures trader, including sugar, coffee, grains, hogs, and other meat futures. At the time of its bankruptcy filing during December 2001,
Enron was structured into seven distinct business units.
Broadband services
Enron Intelligent Network (broadband content delivery).
Enron Media Services (risk management services for media content companies).
Customizable Bandwidth Solutions (bandwidth and fiber products trading).
Streaming Media Applications (live or on-demand Internet broadcasting applications).
Enron Wind Power Services (wind turbine manufacturing and wind farm operation).
MG Plc. (U.K. metals merchant).
Enron Energy Services (Selling services to industrial end users).
Enron International (operation of all overseas assets).
Commodity Management.
Energy Asset Management.
Energy Information Management.
Facility Management.
Capital Management.
Azurix Inc. (water utilities and infrastructure).
Energy Infrastructure Development (developing, financing, and operation of power plants and related projects).
Enron Global Exploration & Production Inc. (upstream oil and natural gas international development).
Elektro Electricidade e Servicos SA (Brazilian electric utility).
Northern Border Pipeline.
Houston Pipeline.
Transwestern Pipeline.
Florida Gas Transmission.
Northern Natural Gas Company.
Natural Gas Storage.
Compression Services.
Gas Processing and Treatment.
Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Services.
EOTT Energy Inc. (oil transportation).
Enron manufactured gas valves, circuit breakers, thermostats, and electrical equipment in Venezuela by means of INSELA SA, a 50–50 joint venture with General
Electric. Enron owned three paper and pulp products companies: Garden State Paper, a newsprint mill; as well as Papiers Stadacona and St. Aurelie Timberlands.
Enron had a controlling stake in the Louisiana-based petroleum exploration and production company Mariner Energy.
EnronOnline
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Enron opened EnronOnline, an electronic trading platform for energy commodities, on November 29, 1999.[50][51] Conceptualized by the company's European Gas
Trading team, it was the first web-based transaction system that allowed buyers and sellers to buy, sell, and trade commodity products globally. It allowed users to
do business only with Enron. The site allowed Enron to transact with participants in the global energy markets. The main commodities offered on EnronOnline
were natural gas and electricity, although there were 500 other products including credit derivatives, bankruptcy swaps, pulp, gas, plastics, paper, steel, metals,
freight, and TV commercial time. At its maximum, more than $6 billion worth of commodities were transacted by means of EnronOnline every day.
After Enron's bankruptcy in late 2001, EnronOnline was sold to the Swiss financial giant UBS. Within a year, UBS abandoned its efforts to relaunch the division,
and closed it in November 2002.[50][52]
Enron International
Enron International (EI) was Enron's wholesale asset development and asset management business. Its primary emphasis was developing and building natural
gas power plants outside North America. Enron Engineering and Construction Company (EECC) was a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron International, and built
almost all of Enron International's power plants. Unlike other business units of Enron, Enron International had a strong cash flow on bankruptcy filing. Enron
International consisted of all of Enron's foreign power projects, including ones in Europe.
The company's Teesside plant was one of the largest gas-fired power stations in the world, built and operated by Enron from 1989, and produced 3 percent of the
United Kingdom's energy needs.[53][54] Enron owned half of the plant's equity, with the remaining 50 per cent split between four regional electricity companies.[54]
Management
Rebecca Mark was the CEO of Enron International until she resigned to manage Enron's newly acquired water business, Azurix, during 1997. Mark had a major
role in the development of the Dabhol project in India, Enron's largest international endeavor.
Projects
Enron International constructed power plants and pipelines across the globe. Some are presently still operating, including the massive Teesside plant in England.
Others, like a barge-mounted plant off Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, cost Enron money by lawsuits and investment losses. Puerto Plata was a barge-
mounted power plant next to the hotel Hotelero del Atlantico. When the plant was activated, winds blew soot from the plant onto the hotel guests' meals,
blackening their food. The winds also blew garbage from nearby slums into the plant's water-intake system. For some time the only solution was to hire men who
would row out and push the garbage away with their paddles. Through mid-2000 the company collected a paltry $3.5 million from a $95 million investment.
Enron also had other investment projects in Europe, South America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Jamaica, Venezuela, and across the Caribbean.
India
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Around 1992 Indian experts came to the United States to find energy investors to help with India's energy shortage problems. During December 1993, Enron
finalized a 20-year power-purchase contract with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board. The contract allowed Enron to construct a massive 2,015 megawatt
power plant on a remote volcanic bluff 100 miles (160 km) south of Mumbai. Construction would be completed in two phases, and Enron would form the Dabhol
Power Company to help manage the plant. The power project was the first step in a $20 billion scheme to help rebuild and stabilize India's power grid. Enron, GE
(which was selling turbines to the project), and Bechtel (which was actually constructing the plant), each contributed 10% equity.
During 1996, when India's Congress Party was no longer in power, the Indian government assessed the project as being excessively expensive and refused to pay
for the plant and stopped construction. The Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB), the local state-owned utility, was required by contract to continue to pay
Enron plant maintenance charges, even if no power was purchased from the plant. The MSEB determined that it could not afford to purchase the power (at Rs. 8
per unit kWh) charged by Enron. The plant operator was unable to find alternate customers for Dabhol power due to the absence of a free market in the regulated
structure of utilities in India. From 1996 until Enron's bankruptcy during 2001 the company tried to revive the project and revive interest in India's need for the
power plant without success.
Project summer
During the summer of 2001, Enron made an attempt to sell a number of Enron International's assets, many of which were not sold. The public and media believed
it was unknown why Enron wanted to sell these assets, suspecting it was because Enron was in need of cash.[55] Employees who worked with company assets were
told in 2000 [56] that Jeff Skilling believed that business assets were an outdated means of company worth, and instead he wanted to build a company based on
"intellectual assets".
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During early 2002, Enron was awarded Harvard's (in)famous Ig Nobel Prize for 'Most Creative Use of Imaginary Numbers.' The various former members of Enron
management all refused to accept the award in person, although no reason was given at the time.
See also
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, an award-winning 2005 documentary film which examines the collapse of the Enron Corporation
The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron, a television movie aired by CBS in January 2003 based on the book Anatomy of Greed by Brian Cruver
Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron, a book by Robert Bryce
ENRON, a 2009 play by British playwright Lucy Prebble
Dot-com bubble
Mr. Robot, a USA Network television series featuring a fictional corporation called E Corp, based on Enron including the logo.
References
1. "FORTUNE 500: Enron" (http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500_archive/snapshots/2001/478.html). Fortune.
2. "Andersen guilty in Enron case" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2047122.stm). BBC News. June 15, 2002. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
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22. Grigg, Neil S. Water Finance: Public Responsibilities and Private Opportunities (https://books.google.com/books?id=C_KenysXGuEC&pg=PA76). John Wiley
& Sons, 2011. p. 76.
23. Fox, Loren (1003). Enron: the rise and fall. John Wiley & Son. p. 113. ISBN 0-471-47888-1.
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Lynn Brewer, Matthew Scott Hansen, House of Cards, Confessions of An Enron Executive (Virtualbookworm.com Publishing, 2002) ISBN 1-58939-248-5
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Kurt Eichenwald, Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story (Broadway Books, 2005) ISBN 0-7679-1178-4.
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Loren Fox, Enron: The Rise and Fall. (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2003).
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12/6/2017 Enron - Wikipedia
External links
Enron emails and phone calls dataset, archived and searchable online with Threads (https://web.archive.org/web/20150605232746/http://www.threads.uk.co
m/threads-enron-database/).
Portland General Electric Company (http://www.portlandgeneral.com/)
Northern Natural Gas Company (http://www.northernnaturalgas.com/)
"Enron—Legal News Archives" (http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/search/enron), Breaking Legal News
Enron and the Cult of Personality (http://everything2.com/title/Enron+and+the+Cult+of+Personality), Everything2.com
Enron's Code of Ethics (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/enron/enronethics1.html), TheSmokingGun.com
Enron board records at the Hagley Library (http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20130306210606/http://cdm15017.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm4/index_p15017coll21.ph
p?CISOROOT=/p15017coll21)
"The Fall of Enron" (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=417840), HBS Research paper
Public Citizen Access to Justice, Financial Reform, and Government Accontability (http://www.citizen.org/congress/article_redirect.cfm?ID=6693/), Citizen.org
The story of the Enron scandal (http://www.the-accounting-adventurista.com/Enron.html), the-accounting-adventurista.com
Data
Yahoo!: Enron Corp. Company Profile (http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/10/10521.html)
Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. Profile (http://www.hoovers.com/enron/--ID__10521--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml), Hoovers.com
Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. profile (http://finance.google.com/finance?q=Enron), Google Finance
Enron Chronology (http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/enron/chronology.htm)
Enron Securities Litigation Web Site (https://web.archive.org/web/20100818220425/http://www.gilardi.com/enron/securities/) (Contains the ENRON historical
stock quotes from 1997 to 2002.)
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