industry energy electrical power industry founded 1984 headquarters houston texas united states area served usa 6 states 1 key people thomas w. elward interim chairman ; robert c. flexon interim chief executive officer ; kevin howell executive vice president and chief operating officer ; clint freeland executive vice president and chief financial officer 2 products natural gas discontinued after 2005 ; 3 electricity generation number of employees 1 262 as of december 31 2011 ; 274 at corporate headquarters and 988 at facilities 4 website www.dynegy.com 601 travis houses the headquarters of dynegy dynegy inc. is an electric company based in houston texas in the united states . it owns and operates a number of power stations in the u.s. all of which are natural gas fueled or coal fueled . the company is located at 601 travis street in downtown houston . 5 the company was founded in 1984 as natural gas clearinghouse . it was originally an energy brokerage buying and selling natural gas supplies . it changed its name to ngc corporation in 1995 after entering the electrical power generation business . the company adopted the name dynegy in 1998 . it attempted to buy the enron energy trading firm in 2001 but disengaged from the proposed acquisition due to the scandal at enron . dynegy nearly went bankrupt in 2002 and several executives were eventually convicted of financial fraud and mismanagement . dynegy exited the energy trading business in 2002 and the natural gas supply business in 2005 focusing its efforts on electrical generation . the company has one major subsidiary dynegy holdings . it also has three operating subsidiaries gasco coalco and the stub group for other miscellaneous business enterprises . dynegy inc. was the subject of two unsuccessful takeover efforts in 2010 . its dynegy holdings subsidiary went bankrupt in november 2011 and dynegy inc. itself filed for bankruptcy protection on july 6 2012 . its gasco and coalco subsidiaries were unaffected by the bankruptcy filing . dynegy emerged from bankruptcy on october 2 2012 . contents 1 corporate predecessors 1.1 natural gas clearinghouse 1.2 ngc corporation 2 dynegy history 2.1 growth 2.2 near bankruptcy of 2002 2.3 recovery and restructuring 2.4 takeover battles 3 2012 bankruptcy 4 post bankruptcy 4.1 roseton and danskammer sales 4.2 ameren purchase 4.3 2014 acquisitions 5 see also 6 references 7 external links corporate predecessors edit transco tower now known as williams tower in houston the original headquarters of dynegy in 1984 . natural gas clearinghouse edit natural gas clearinghouse ngc was created in 1985 by charles watson ; 6 a consortium of natural gas pipeline companies that included transco ; investment bank morgan stanley ; and the legal firm of akin gump strauss hauer & feld . a major investor was kenneth lay later the chief executive officer of the energy firm enron . 7 its first headquarters was on the 40th floor of the transco tower in houston texas . 8 ngc was so successful that in 1985 morgan stanley bought out some of the other investors and took a majority stake in the company . 7 ngc was purchased by noble affiliates inc. and apache corporation independent oil and gas exploration and production companies for a reported 50 million in 1989 . 9 in 1993 lg & e energy corporation took a stake in ngc which by then was the largest independent natural gas marketing firm in the united states and had revenues of more than us 2 billion . 10 ngc purchased trident ngl in 1994 in a deal worth more than 750 million . 11 that same year it also established a partnership with nova also known as novagas clearinghouse a natural gas marketing company based in canada and british gas which gave both companies a financial stake in ngc . 12 ngc corporation edit natural gas clearinghouse shortened its name to ngc corporation in 1995 after its merger with trident ngl closed . it became a publicly traded company on the new york stock exchange that same year . 13 by 1996 it had grown to us 550 million in assets and carried us 525 million in long term debt . 14 ngc corporation also established several subsidiaries to enable it to enter the electrical generation marketing and sales areas . electric clearinghouse sold electricity and the energy store marketed it . in august 1996 it purchased the natural gas gathering marketing and processing operations of chevron corporation . 15 the latter deal gave chevron a 29 percent stake in ngc . 16 ngc followed that deal by buying destec energy for us 1.27 billion . the deal required ngc corporation to sell destec s power generation subsidiaries in australia canada the dominican republic the netherlands and the united kingdom for us 407 million although ngc corporation retained destec s 20 domestic gas fired power plants . 15 dynegy history edit growth edit in june 1998 ngc corporation changed its name to dynegy inc. the company s original slogan was we believe in people . 17 nova announced two months later that it was seeking to sell its stake in dynegy . 18 dynegy bought illinova corporation in 1999 in a deal worth us 1.75 billion and the assumption of us 2.25 billion of illinova corp. debt . the deal also allowed nova and british gas to sell their stake in dynegy . 16 dynegy also began branching into areas outside natural gas and electrical generation . in august 2000 the company announced that it had purchased extant inc. a broadband provider building a nationwide fiber optic network for us 152.5 million . 19 dynegy along with enron el paso corporation reliant energy and several other energy companies was accused of price manipulation and other fraudulent practices during the california electricity crisis in 2000 and 2001 . 20 the case against dynegy was dismissed in 2003 . 21 in 2001 dynegy made a white knight us 8 billion takeover bid for enron which was saddled with 13 billion in debt and whose stock had plummeted . 22 the deal began unraveling two weeks later as enron revealed even larger financial losses and more debt than previously reported . 23 dynegy withdrew its merger offer on november 28 . 24 enron sued dynegy on december 2 the day after enron declared bankruptcy . 25 the lawsuit was settled in august 2002 after dynegy agreed to pay enron us 25 million for backing out of the deal . 26 enron attempted to sell off assets in an effort to stay afloat . on january 3 2002 dynegy successfully acquired enron s northern natural gas company pipeline . 27 nngc was enron s most lucrative pipeline asset and had been put up as collateral in return for dynegy providing financing to enron during merger talks . 28 near bankruptcy of 2002 edit wells fargo plaza in houston the headquarters of dynegy as of 2011 . the company moved out in 2012 . dynegy came close to bankruptcy in 2002 . investor pressure on energy stocks in the wake of the enron collapse pushed dynegy s stock price down 42 percent by late april . the company also admitted on april 26 that it made a large accounting error on a fuel contract which further depressed the stock price 22 percent . moody s investors service announced it was reviewing all us 4 billion of dynegy debt . 29 in financial distress dynegy successfully applied for a us 900 million line of credit . 30 on may 1 the u.s. securities and exchange commission opened a formal investigation into how dynegy s project alpha an internal corporate initiative that allegedly inflated income from natural gas transactions and illegally structured business partnerships to avoid income . 31 two weeks later the new york times reported that dynegy s illinova subsidiary was part of the investigation . illinova had formed a joint partnership named catlin in january 2000 with a little known investment company named black thunder . catlin took over some of illinova s electrical generating assets . although black thunder put up almost 90 percent of the money to form catlin dynegy was required to buy out black thunder s investment or sell off the assets if catlin did not earn a specified high rate of return . 32 on may 28 dynegy founder president and chief executive officer charles watson resigned . 33 dynegy inc. chairman dan dienstbier was named interim ceo . 34 in mid june dynegy reported that its first quarter income had fallen 80 percent . it also admitted that it had signed long term power contracts that would not produce revenue for years to come . but it had charged the income to the current year s revenues in an attempt to bolster its bottom line . 35 on june 19 dynegy s chief financial office rob doty resigned . 36 the following day dynegy shut down its online energy trading system . 37 dynegy was quickly approaching bankruptcy by late june 2002 . on june 25 the company announced it would sell off assets in an attempt to raise us 2 billion in cash . 38 moody s downgraded the rating of the company s bonds to junk status on june 28 . 39 dynegy announced it might need a financial partner to help it stabilize . after the july 23 announcement the company s shares dropped 64 percent . 34 desperate for cash dynegy sold the northern natural gas company to midamerican energy holdings for 928 million on july 29 572 less than it paid for it . 40 the sale saved dynegy from bankruptcy . 41 although dynegy avoided bankruptcy the fallout from the company s accounting practices continued throughout 2002 . in august former dynegy controller and chief accounting officer bradley p. farnsworth sued the company saying he d been fired after refusing to help manipulate the company s financial statements in the summer of 2000 . 42 the company suspended its dividend on august 12 . 43 on september 3 interim chairman glenn f. tilton resigned in order to become chief executive officer of united airlines . 44 on september 24 dynegy announced that it had agreed to pay a us 3 million fine for using the catlin company and other business partnerships to hide losses and taxable income . it also admitted that it had engaged in round trip trades phony natural gas and electricity trades designed to mislead investors and other companies about the success of dynegy s online trading operation . 45 the company later fired five traders after the commodity futures trading commission cftc discovered that dynegy energy traders had supplied false prices to industry trade publications . 46 the company later paid a us 5 million fine to the cftc . 47 still needing cash dynegy sold its hornsea natural gas storage site in the united kingdom to help pay the fine . 48 dynegy shuttered its online energy trading business for good on october 16 2002 . 49 the closure led dynegy to lay off 14 percent of its workforce which left it with just 4 600 employees . 50 several dynegy executives were later convicted or indicted for their roles in dynegy s near collapse . in june 2003 jamie olis former senior director of tax planning gene foster former vice president for taxation and helen sharkey a former employee in dynegy s risk control and deal structure groups were indicted on numerous counts of mail and wire fraud . according to court documents the three employees conceived of a plan in early 2001 to borrow money but make it look like operational revenue . a corporation known as abg gas supply was created . abg secured loans from citigroup credit suisse first boston and deutsche bank to buy natural gas at market prices . abg then sold this gas at a discount to dynegy which resold it at