Editing Enron (section)

===1991–2000===
Throughout the 1990s, Enron made a few changes to its business plan that greatly improved the perceived profitability of the company. First, 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. and headed by Skilling.<ref name=":0" />

====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.

====Entrance into the retail energy market====
Starting in 1994 under the [[Energy Policy Act of 1992]], Congress allowed states to deregulate their electricity utilities, allowing them to be opened for competition. California was one such state to do so. Enron, seeing an opportunity with rising prices, was eager to jump into the market. In 1997, Enron acquired [[Portland General Electric]] (PGE). Although an Oregon utility, it had the potential to begin serving the massive California market since PGE was a regulated utility. The new Enron division, Enron Energy, ramped up its efforts by offering discounts to potential customers in California starting in 1998. Enron Energy also began to sell natural gas to customers in Ohio and wind power in Iowa. However, the company ended its retail endeavor in 1999 as it was revealed it was costing upwards of $100 million a year.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" />

====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 own network.<ref name="NYT1999">{{cite news|last1=Schiesel|first1=Seth|title=Jumping Off the Bandwidth Wagon|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/11/business/jumping-off-the-bandwidth-wagon.html|access-date=February 17, 2017|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=July 11, 1999}}</ref> In 1997, FTV Communications LLC, a [[limited liability company]] formed by Enron subsidiary FirstPoint Communications, Inc., constructed a {{convert|1,380|mi}} fiber optic network between Portland and Las Vegas.<ref name=PRNEWS>{{cite news|title=Montana Power, Williams Communications, Enron Units Announce Fiber Providers for Portland-to-Los Angeles Network|url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/montana-power-williams-communications-enron-units-announce-fiber-providers-for-portland-to-los-angeles-network-77921802.html|access-date=February 17, 2017|work=[[PRNewswire]]|date=December 17, 1997|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170217071349/http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/montana-power-williams-communications-enron-units-announce-fiber-providers-for-portland-to-los-angeles-network-77921802.html|archive-date=February 17, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1998, Enron constructed a building in a rundown area of Las Vegas near E Sahara, right over the "backbone" of fiber optic cables providing service to technology companies nationwide.<ref name="NPR04">{{cite news|title=Profiting from Enron Bankruptcy|url=https://knpr.org/knpr/2004-11/profiting-enron-bankruptcy|access-date=February 17, 2017|work=[[Nevada Public Radio]]|date=November 29, 2004|language=en}}</ref> 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".<ref name="NPR04"/> The location was also more protected from natural disasters than areas such as Los Angeles or the East Coast.<ref name="NPR04"/> According to ''Wall Street Daily'', "Enron had a secret", it "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&nbsp;... it was all part of Enron's plan to essentially own the internet."<ref name="WSdaily">{{cite news|last1=Miller|first1=Greg|title=SUPERNAP: The World's Most Advanced Data Center|url=https://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2015/09/11/supernap-data-center/|access-date=February 17, 2017|work=Wall Street Daily|date=September 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218065430/https://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2015/09/11/supernap-data-center/|archive-date=February 18, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref name="REG2008">{{cite news|last=Vance|first=Ashlee|author-link=Ashlee Vance|title=Welcome to Las Vegas – Home of the technology superpower you've never heard of|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/24/switch_switchnap_rob_roy/?page=3|access-date=February 19, 2017|work=[[The Register]]|date=May 24, 2008}}</ref>

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 gain]]s from the rising stock prices, with a total of $924 million of stocks sold by high-level Enron employees between 2000 and 2001. The 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 at low cost and then make 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 fiber would be worth when "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.<ref name="WPjan01">{{cite news|last=Behr|first=Peter|title=Broadband Strategy Got Enron in Trouble; Bid to Create Market for Fiber-Optic Space Included Aggressive Accounting|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|issue=E01|date=January 1, 2001}}</ref>

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 [[Video on demand|movies on demand]] over Enron's connections was canceled, 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.<ref name="WPjan01"/>

Following the bankruptcy of Enron, telecommunications holdings were sold for "pennies on the dollar".<ref name="NPR04"/> In 2002, Rob Roy of [[Switch (company)|Switch Communications]] purchased Enron's Nevada facility in an auction attended only by Roy. Enron's "fiber plans were so secretive that few people even knew about the auction." The facility was sold for only $930,000.<ref name="NPR04"/><ref name="WSdaily"/> Following the sale, Switch expanded to control "the biggest data center in the world".<ref name="WSdaily"/>

====Overseas expansion====
Enron, seeing stability after the merger, began to look overseas for new possible energy opportunities in 1991. Enron's first such opportunity was a [[Teesside power station|natural gas power plant]] utilizing cogeneration that the company built near [[Middlesbrough]], UK.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /> 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]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=991|title=Teesside Power Station |publisher=Engineering Timelines |access-date=July 27, 2016}}</ref> 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-Jusbasche|Rebecca Mark]]. By 1994, EI's portfolio included assets in The Philippines, Australia, Guatemala, Germany, France, India, Argentina, the Caribbean, China, England, Colombia, Turkey, Bolivia, Brazil, Indonesia, Norway, Poland, and Japan. The division was producing 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. Seeing the potential, they searched for ways to enter the market, similar to PGE.

During this period of growth, Enron introduced a new corporate identity on January 14, 1997, and from that point adopted their distinctive tricolor E logo. This logo was one of the final projects of legendary graphic designer [[Paul Rand]] before his death in 1996, and debuted almost three months after his departure.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2015/04/08/looking-back-designs-paul-rand/hjnIvMIwXxYThxjmDXhnZM/story.html|title=Looking back at the designs of Paul Rand – The Boston Globe|last=Feeney|first=Mark|date=April 8, 2015|work=BostonGlobe.com|access-date=March 7, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/conspiracyoffool00kurt/page/137|title=Conspiracy of fools : a true story|last=Eichenwald|first=Kurt|date=2005|publisher=Broadway Books|isbn=9780767911795|edition=1st trade paperback|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/conspiracyoffool00kurt/page/137 137]|oclc=62936217}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://designobserver.com/feature/the-smartest-logo-in-the-room/6237|title=The Smartest Logo in the Room|last=Bierut|first=Michael|date=February 11, 2008|work=Design Observer|access-date=March 7, 2018|language=en}}</ref>

In 1998, Enron International acquired [[Wessex Water]] for $2.88 billion.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/nov/05/corporatefraud.enron|title=How Enron's great water adventure ended in tears|date=November 5, 2002|website=The Guardian|access-date=July 27, 2016}}</ref> Wessex Water became the core asset of a new company, [[Azurix]], which expanded to other water companies. After Azurix's promising [[Initial public offering|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]]''.<ref name=mclean>{{cite book|author-link1=Bethany McLean|last1=McLean|first1=Bethany|first2=Peter|last2=Elkind|title=The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron|publisher=Portfolio|year=2003|isbn=1-59184-008-2| url=https://archive.org/details/smartestguysin00mcle}}</ref>{{rp|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.<ref name=mclean />{{rp|255}} By the end of 2000 Azurix had an operating profit of less than $100 million and was $2 billion in debt.<ref name=mclean />{{rp|257}} In August 2000, after Azurix stock took a plunge following its earnings report,<ref name=mclean />{{rp|257}} Mark resigned from Azurix and Enron.<ref>[[Kurt Eichenwald|Eichenwald, Kurt]]. [https://archive.org/details/conspiracyoffool00eich/page/362 ''Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story'']. Random House, 2005. pp. 362–364.</ref><ref>Smith, Rebecca and Aaron Lucchetti. [http://expressindia.indianexpress.com/fe/daily/20000829/fco29065.html "Rebecca Mark's Exit Leaves Enron's Azurix Treading Deep Water"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222195613/http://expressindia.indianexpress.com/fe/daily/20000829/fco29065.html|date=February 22, 2014}}. Originally in: ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''. August 28, 2000.</ref> Azurix assets, including Wessex, were eventually sold by Enron.<ref>Grigg, Neil S. [https://books.google.com/books?id=C_KenysXGuEC&pg=PA76 ''Water Finance: Public Responsibilities and Private Opportunities'']. John Wiley & Sons, 2011. p. 76.</ref>