Latest news with #Enron
The National
5 days ago
- Business
- The National
From fraud and bankruptcy to personal nuclear reactors, the unlikely rebirth of Enron
On what was described as Enron's first earnings call in 25 years, the infamous energy company's chief executive acknowledged the accounting scandal that collapsed the company in 2001. Connor Gaydos, the new leader of Enron – the American company that was rocked by the discovery of widespread fraud, leading it to file for bankruptcy – was flanked by the company's famed tilted E logo as he reflected stoically on the past. "This company has a legendary history and some of it is good and some of it is bad," he said in a Zoom call attended by hundreds. "That's fine, Enron's name has always carried weight, and we don't run from that – we embrace it." Some view it as parody, others as performance art. Whatever it is, Mr Gaydos now owns the Texas-based company that had about 20,000 employees and more than $47 billion in assets before it collapsed. The company primarily focused on electricity and natural gas, as well as trading in energy and physical commodities. It also offered financial and risk management services to other businesses. An archived version of Enron's website claimed more than $100 billion in revenue as of 2000. But whistle-blowers revealed rampant fraud, much of it in the form of egregious accounting methods, which destroyed the company and brought an end to a boom rooted in economic and energy deregulation starting in the mid 1990s. As a result of the crisis, Enron's former chief executive, Jeffrey Skilling, served more than a decade in prison. The company's founder and former chairman, Kenneth Lay, probably would have been jailed had he not died before his sentencing. The company's former chief financial officer, Andrew Fastow, also served a prison sentence. Enron was at the heart of one of the biggest US corporate scandals of all time. It now serves as a cautionary tale for companies, investors and consumers. "Enron was always something that I had thought about since I was a child," Mr Gaydos told The National, days after Enron's earnings call. The 29-year-old, originally from Arkansas, reflected on the tainted company's happier and more prosperous days, describing it as the "OpenAI or Nvidia of the mid 1990s". He explained that his decision to restart the notorious company stemmed from viewing a documentary about its fall from grace. He looked up the Enron logo in the US trademark database and noticed that ownership of the symbol – by graphic designer Paul Rand, who also created the logos for IBM, Westinghouse, UPS and ABC – had expired. Mr Gaydos hired a lawyer who helped with the trademark acquisition paperwork. For a few hundred dollars, including legal fees, he became the owner of the Enron brand. "It cost me what I think the price of cup of coffee will cost in a few years," he joked, referring to inflation. In late 2024, Enron announced its comeback through accounts on Instagram, X and TikTok – which did not exist when the company went under in 2001. Now, Enron has about 500,000 followers on those social platforms. "We're here to lead by are Enron," a promotional video for the company said. Since that video came out, Mr Gaydos has done several interviews and the company has heavily promoted a fanciful product it calls the Enron Egg, which it describes as a personal nuclear reactor"made to power your home for up to 10 years". Several people purporting to be board members and high-level staff members took part in the recent earnings call. "I've got 60 people on the payroll right now," Mr Gaydos said. The company also recently promoted a 2025 summer internship programme and a commitment to corporate diversity. Although it is his first time leading a prominent brand, it is not the first time Mr Gaydos has been in the spotlight. He is one of the creators of Birds Aren't Real, the viral, performance art conspiracy theory designed as a critique of the abundance of misinformation pumped out on social media. Mr Gaydos said the main thrust of the project was to show how the internet had been used as a tool to divide people. With the Enron endeavour, however, he wants to do something different. 'I want to unite people using the toolbox that we used with Birds Aren't Real, but do it in a way that can hopefully shine a light on some of the areas that deserve to be exposed with the energy business,' he explained. Mr Gaydos said in the two decades since Enron's financial implosion, energy business consolidation, government subsidies and policies that lack environmental awareness have run amok. Consumers have suffered while energy profits have soared, he added. He said his version of Enron was in the process seeking approval to become a retail energy provider. The Enron brand owner said that, in Texas, 10 'legacy monopoly companies' supply energy to about 60 per cent of the population. Mr Gaydos accused those companies of vague pricing and outsourcing customer service to artificial intelligence. Without going into specifics, Mr Gaydos said Enron wanted to present Texas residents with a straightforward and economical path to provide energy to their homes or businesses. 'The energy monopoly in this country has got so out of hand,' he said, before changing to a more optimistic tone, adding that his goal is to bring back Enron and create a new company that will revolutionise energy. 'If there's a few jokes along the way, and if some people laugh along the way, so be it." Speaking with Mr Gaydos, it is sometimes difficult to tell what is real and what is parody. One of the project's staff members who co-ordinated the interview insisted the push to become a retail energy provider was real. "Stay tuned," they said. "Enron has a lot of interesting stuff coming down the pike."
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jim Chanos Calls Strategy's Premium 'Financial Gibberish'
Jim Chanos, the founder of Kynikos Associates who famously shorted U.S. energy giant Enron before it collapsed in 2001, has set his sights on Strategy (MSTR), arguing the bitcoin (BTC)-buying company's premium valuation over its holdings of the largest cryptocurrency is unjustified. Chanos has placed a bet against Strategy's stock by shorting it while maintaining a long position in bitcoin itself, aiming to profit if the company's premium valuation shrinks. In shorting, a trader borrows stock, sells it and hopes the price falls enough for them to buy it back in time to return to the lender while leaving them with a profit. The investor has earned a reputation for spotting corporate frauds and overvalued companies. Enron, once a major U.S. energy firm, collapsed amid massive accounting fraud, wiping out billions in value and sending top executives to prison, becoming a lasting symbol of corporate scandal. He criticized the financial maneuvers of Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, who has sold convertible debt and preferred shares to raise money to buy more bitcoin, calling them 'financial gibberish' and warning that the sales create risks for shareholders. Strategy has accumulated more than 600,000 bitcoins, far surpassing its closest competitors. In a debate on the We Study Billionaires podcast, Chanos clashed with Pierre Rochard, CEO of Bitcoin Bond Co. and a well-known bitcoin advocate, over Strategy's roughly 1.9 times net asset value premium. According to Chanos, the company offers nothing unique beyond owning bitcoin, and contends the premium should disappear as more than 140 other firms worldwide, including MARA Holdings (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT) and Metaplanet (3350), pursue similar treasury strategies. Rochard, however, sees Strategy's large bitcoin stash and first-mover advantage as key strengths. He argued the company can raise significant debt without diluting shareholders and that investors view Strategy as a leveraged play on BTC, akin to holding a call option for potential upside. Rochard also suggest that crypto-friendly policies under the administration of President Trump could attract more investment into the industry, boosting Strategy's appeal. While Chanos insisted direct bitcoin ownership is safer and simpler, Rochard countered that Strategy's size enables it to leverage more efficiently than individual investors.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wall Street's hottest debate pits Jim Chanos against Michael Saylor
One of Wall Street's most prominent skeptics, short seller Jim Chanos, is ramping up his criticism of Wall Street's most popular bitcoin trade: Michael Saylor's Strategy (MSTR). 'It makes kind of no sense,' Chanos said in a recent interview on Bloomberg's "Odd Lots" podcast, the latest in a series of public comments taking aim at the market frenzy surrounding Saylor's company. Saylor has turned a business intelligence software firm into a bitcoin juggernaut by using a combination of debt and equity to add tons of the world's largest cryptocurrency to his company's balance sheet. Strategy now holds 597,325 bitcoins worth roughly $64 billion as of June 30, making it the largest corporate holder of the digital asset. And the stock of his company has soared 210% over the past year — well above the 80% gain of bitcoin itself as well as a 13% gain for the S&P 500. The main concern about all this, which Chanos continues to hammer home in TV appearances and podcasts, is that Strategy should not be valued higher than the underlying asset it owns, and that investors should simply buy bitcoin instead of stock in a company buying bitcoin. Chanos's views carry weight on Wall Street. He has made a career out of betting against companies he believes are wrongly valued, and is most famous for predicting the downfall of Enron in 2001. Saylor's counterargument to Chanos's skepticism is that shares of Strategy are easier to own and buy than bitcoin or bitcoin exchange-traded funds due to compliance and regulatory rules. Proponents of his approach also argue that Strategy's stock trades at such a rich price to bitcoin because investors believe the company will continue to suck up more of the asset's finite supply of 21 million units. 'If you want to 10x your money, you buy bitcoin,' Saylor said in May at a conference convened to show other firms how to adopt his so-called 'bitcoin treasury' strategy. 'If you want 100x your money, you buy bitcoin with someone else's money. If you want to 1000x your money, you buy bitcoin with someone else's money and then you leverage the bitcoin.' The escalating war of words between Chanos and Saylor has captivated Wall Street as the two lob shots at one another via interviews with TV networks such as CNBC and Bloomberg. 'I don't think he understands what our business model is,' Saylor has said of Chanos, predicting that 'if our stock rallies up, he's going to get liquidated and wiped out.' Chanos has said of Saylor that he 'is a wonderful salesman, but that's what he is: He's a salesman … I call it financial gibberish.' Neither Chanos nor Saylor responded to Yahoo Finance requests for comment. So far in 2025, bets against Saylor have not worked out. Investors betting against Strategy over the last month have seen $3.6 billion in losses, according to short seller data provider S3 Partners. Chanos isn't Strategy's only critic. Investors filed two separate lawsuits in May and June in a federal court in Virginia, both of which included allegations that Strategy misled them about how the volatility of bitcoin could affect the stock. Some analysts have also raised concerns. Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co analyst Gustavo Gala said in a recent series of notes to clients that Strategy's premium will likely come down as fixed income investors have shown limited interest in the company's convertible debt and preferred shares used to fund its bitcoin purchases, writing in early June that Strategy has 'a limited runway' to continue its approach. Gala noted that there is a growing concentration of companies pursuing a 'copycat BTC Treasury Strategy.' Dozens of other companies, from a media firm controlled by President Trump's family to meme stock poster child GameStop (GME), have piled into bets similar to the blueprint laid out by Saylor. And 'all of these compete for an ostensibly similar pool of capital,' Gala wrote in a note Tuesday. Over the first half of 2025, public companies collectively added 245,191 bitcoins to their balance sheet, more than twice as much as bitcoin holding ETFs over the same period, according to data provider Bitcoin Treasuries. The latest big name to enter the crypto treasury game is Fundstrat founder Tom Lee, who is joining bitcoin mining firm BitMine Emersion Technologies (BMNR) as chairman after joining several institutions in helping this company raise $250 million to launch an ether (ETH-USD)-focused treasury strategy. BitMine's stock price has taken off since the June 30 announcement, climbing more than 30 times its pre-announcement price of $4.26. Short sellers have had far better luck betting against imitators of Saylor as opposed to Saylor's actual company. For the month of June, they earned $549 million betting against four of Strategy's largest imitators, according to S3. David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance. His email is at Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Encourage men to move toward what we love, not just what's expected of us
Twenty-five years ago, I was running on the proverbial hamster wheel. My dad was an accountant, so I became an accountant. Then I did what everyone expected and landed a job at one of the big five accounting firms. Suits, skyscrapers, long commutes and a dog-eat-dog work environment... It was the quintessential life of a hungry, 20-something New Jersey businessman. A 'finance bro,' as the kids call them these days. Every morning, I was up at 4 a.m. Not because I loved spreadsheets, but because fitness kept me sane. My workout routine gave me clarity in a world where 'movement' otherwise meant ruthlessly climbing the corporate ladder, and competition for promotions was a full-contact sport. After the Enron scandal rocked my company and the smoke from the 9/11 attacks loomed over my long commute home, the cracks in my professional life became hard to ignore. Eventually, I realized I was moving in a direction at odds with the person I wanted to be. Opinion: American men are in crisis and they look up to toxic role models to cope So, I quit. I took a hard pivot, went back to my alma mater, and accepted an internship in campus recreation. Some would say I started over, but I'd say I found my way home. I found passion in working with health-minded students, creating fitness programs and earning advanced degrees in exercise science. I found a way to make a living by helping others live healthier, more active lives. Not from a cubicle, but from a place of purpose. June is Men's Health Month, and you'll hear a lot about cholesterol, PSA tests, and colonoscopies (all important, get them). But, men: There's more to health than lab results, and there's more to life than doing what's expected. Want to preserve your health? Move toward what you love. If you hate the treadmill, don't run on it. Go hike, join a pickup basketball game, try martial arts, chase your kid around the yard. Your body craves movement, but your soul craves purpose. Find something that gives you both. We don't have to burn out in a job that doesn't serve us, or stay stuck in a routine that makes us miserable. Life's too short. Trust me, there's more out there than spreadsheets. Opinion: Why funding for more mental health resources is in Tennessee's best interests I still work out almost every day. My joints complain a little louder now, but I listen to them just like I listened to my gut all those years ago. So this June, sure, get your screenings. But also take inventory with an honest question: Am I heading towards something that fulfills me? Because movement is good, but movement with purpose is even better. Take it from me: You'll know the difference because the latter won't feel like you're on a hamster wheel. Dr. Tim Leszczak is the Chair of the Department of Health and Human Performance at Austin Peay State University, where he oversees the healthcare administration, kinesiology, physical education, public health, and speech-language pathology programs. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Men's health more is than tests. We should move with purpose. | Opinion
Mint
12-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
The six best films about financial turmoil
Finance is not an obvious subject for dramatists. Interest rates, term sheets, mark-to-market accounting: these are phrases to make the average viewer's eyes glaze over. But when markets plunge—dragging down Main Street along with Wall Street—screenwriters' interest surges. Perhaps viewers can expect some terrific films about the tariff-induced chaos in years to come. Until then, here are the best films made about financial turmoil. The financial crisis of 2007-09 was decidedly serious, but this film—about a group of outsiders and hustlers who bet on the housing bubble bursting, and hence foresaw the crisis—is very funny. (It is adapted from a book of the same name by Michael Lewis.) Various celebrities make cameos to explain financial concepts directly to viewers, while Steve Carell, Christian Bale (pictured below) and a frighteningly tanned and venal Ryan Gosling play three of the men who profit from the crisis. This film is morally complex and gripping; it informs and outrages. This documentary is about financiers who ended up in prison because they thought they were cleverer than everyone else. Greedy and hubristic, Enron's executives used dodgy accounting and aggressive PR tactics to make their energy-trading firm seem more profitable than it was. Investors lost billions and the top executives were convicted of fraud, though the boss, Kenneth Lay, died shortly before his sentencing. Based on an equally enjoyable book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind. The Joad family, kicked off their land in Oklahoma during the Great Depression, head west to California to make a better life. The story could easily have been leaden, but Henry Fonda's spiky lead performance as Tom Joad, and the extraordinary cinematography of Gregg Toland (who also filmed 'Citizen Kane'), make it a work of art. John Steinbeck's novel is an American masterpiece; this film is better. A young analyst at an investment bank finds out that the firm is overexposed to risky mortgage-backed securities. This film (pictured below), set in 2008, focuses on the next 24 hours, as the firm sells everything and panic spreads across Wall Street. The ensemble cast is terrific, in particular Paul Bettany as a shark with a well-hidden heart of gold. But watch it for its portrayal of the rituals and culture of high finance: how people dress and defer to superiors, what they talk about outside the office and how they cut each other's throats. Another film about the crisis of 2007-09, this time about the headliners. After the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Hank Paulson, America's treasury secretary (William Hurt), Ben Bernanke, the chair of the Federal Reserve (Paul Giamatti), and the leaders of the biggest banks gather. They negotiate the Troubled Asset Relief Programme, the government's purchase of bad assets from banks to unfreeze credit. The script is instructive—characters explain things to each other for the viewer's benefit—so you'll finish the film having learned something as well as having been entertained. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a smooth-talking huckster who, in real life, made millions in penny-stock scams before going to prison. Martin Scorsese may have intended to make a morality tale about the dangers of filthy lucre, but Belfort and his buddies are clearly having more fun than the honest lawmen who eventually do them in. Jonah Hill offers a grotesque supporting performance aided by a gargantuan set of false teeth.
