When many people hear the word Enron, they immediately associate it with the most important accounting scandal of our lifetimes. Enron was an American gas company that began as the Northern Natural Gas Company in 1931. Internorth, a holding company in headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, purchased the Northern Natural Gas Company and reorganized it is 1979. Enron arose from the 1985 merger of Houston Natural Gas and Internorth. After building a large, new corporate headquarters in Omaha, in 1986 the new Enron named former Houston Natural Gas CEO Kenneth Lay as CEO of the newly merged company, and soon moved Enron's headquarters to Houston, Texas. As Enon continued to grow, in 1987 they discovers that oil traders in New York have overextended the company's accounts by almost $1 billion. The company ultimately works this loss down to $142 million. This leads to Enron developing a myriad of services to help reduce the risk of price swings for everything from gas to advertising space.
The following year Enron opens its first overseas offices in England to take advantage of the country's privatization of its power industry. The company's major strategy shift to pursue unregulated markets in addition to its regulated pipeline business is revealed to executives in a gathering that became known as the "Come to Jesus" meeting. After becoming the newly created top executive, Lay later became chairman of the board
and in 1989 hired Jeffrey Skilling as Chief Executive Officer. This move helped Enron launches its Gas Bank, a program under which buyers of natural gas can lock in long-term supplies at fixed prices. The company also begins to offer financing for oil and gas producers. Approximately three years later Enron acquires Transportadora de Gas del Sur, ...