With BC-Bush-Enron, Bjt
The Associated Press
Published: Jan 10, 2002A chronology of Enron Corp.:
July 1985 - Houston Natural Gas merges with InterNorth, a natural gas company based in Omaha, Neb., to form the modern-day Enron, an interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline company with 37,000 miles of pipe.
1989 - Enron begins trading natural gas commodities. Over the years, the company becomes the largest natural gas merchant in North America and the United Kingdom.
December 2000 - Enron announces that president and chief operating officer Jeffrey Skilling will take over as chief executive in February. Kenneth Lay will remain as chairman. Shares hit 52-week high of $84.87 on Dec. 28.
August 2001 - Skilling resigns after running the company for just six months; Lay becomes CEO again.
Oct. 15 - Lay talks to Commerce Secretary Don Evans while Evans is in Russia leading a trade mission. Commerce officials say the call dealt with an Enron energy project in India and did not cover Enron's financial troubles.
Oct. 16 - Enron reports a $638 million third-quarter loss and discloses a $1.2 billion reduction in shareholder equity, partly related to partnerships run by chief financial officer Andrew Fastow.
Oct. 22 - Enron acknowledges Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into a possible conflict of interest related to the company's dealings with the partnerships.
Oct. 24 - Enron ousts Fastow.
Oct. 28 - Lay talks by telephone with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to inform O'Neill of the financial problems facing the company, according to O'Neill spokeswoman Michele Davis. Davis said the two also talked on Nov. 8. She said Treasury officials could detect no ripple effects in financial markets from Enron's troubles and O'Neill did nothing to help the company.
Oct. 29 - Lay talks by telephone with Evans. A Commerce spokesman says Lay asked Evans if he could do anything to influence a decision by Moody's Investors Service to downgrade Enron's credit rating. Evans, after talking to the general counsel at the Commerce Department, determines it would not be appropriate to intervene in a decision by a private credit rating agency, according to Commerce spokesman Jim Dyke.
Oct. 31 - Enron announces the SEC inquiry has been upgraded to a formal investigation.
Nov. 8 - Enron files documents with SEC revising its financial statements for past five years to account for $586 million in losses.
Nov. 9 - Dynegy Inc. announces an agreement to buy its much larger rival Enron for more than $8 billion in stock.
Nov. 19 - Enron restates its third-quarter earnings and discloses it is trying to restructure a $690 million obligation that could come due Nov. 27.
Nov. 20 - Concerns about Enron's ability to weather its spiraling financial problems send the company's stock down nearly 23 percent to its lowest level in nearly 10 years.
Nov. 21 - Enron reaches agreement to extend $690 million debt payment.
Nov. 26 - Enron shares fall 15 percent, to $4.01.
Nov. 28 - Dynegy backs out of deal after Enron's credit rating is downgraded to junk bond status. Enron shares plunge below $1 amid the heaviest single-day trading volume ever for a NYSE or Nasdaq-listed stock.
Dec. 2 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; sues Dynegy for wrongful termination of merger.
Jan. 9, 2002 - Justice Department confirms it has begun a criminal investigation of Enron.
Jan. 10 - The White House discloses Lay sought the administration's help shortly before the company collapsed. The company's auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP, says it has destroyed some Enron documents. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who received campaign funds from the company for his 2000 Senate race, recuses himself from the investigation.
AP-ES-01-10-02 1758EST
Between 1989 and December 2000, nothing noteworthy happened at Enron.
If the AP says it, it's gotta be true. *hurl*
Yeah, soon as Bush came aboard, things started happenin'.....the conniving Clintoon's were doing a
"great" job holding the nation to a higher standard (barf and double barf)....Bush had to go spoil it all.