Enron

Enron Corporation is an energy company based in Houston, Texas. Prior to its bankruptcy in late 2001, Enron employed around 21,000 people and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, and communications companies, with claimed revenues of $101 billion in 2000. more...

Fortune magazine named Enron "America's Most Innovative Company" for six consecutive years. It became most famous at the end of 2001 when it was revealed that it was sustained mostly by institutionalized, systematic, and well-planned accounting fraud. Its European operations filed for bankruptcy on November 30, 2001, and it sought Chapter 11 protection in the U.S. two days later, on December 2. It still exists, operating a handful of key assets, and making preparations for the sale or spin off of remaining businesses. Enron emerged from bankruptcy in November of 2004 after one of the biggest and most complex cases in US history. It has since entered the common consciousness as a symbol of willful corporate fraud and corruption.

Growth

Enron was founded in 1930 as Northern Natural Gas Company, a consortium of Northern American Power and Light Company, Lone Star Gas Company, and United Lights and Railways Corporation. The consortium ownership was gradually dissolved between 1941 and 1947 through a public stock offering. In 1979, Northern Natural Gas was restructured under the ownership of a new holding company, InterNorth Inc., which replaced Northern Natural Gas on the New York Stock Exchange.

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