verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . october 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message northwestern corporation type public traded as nyse nwe industry utilities founded 1923 as northwestern public service company headquarters sioux falls south dakota usa key people e. linn draper jr. chairman ; robert c. rowe president and ceo products utility operations consist of regulated electric and natural gas distribution transmission and energy supply . in addition they are pursuing electric transmission and generation opportunities . services conventional electricity natural gas number of employees 1 354 website http www.northwesternenergy.com northwestern corporation owns northwestern energy a utility company that serves south dakota nebraska and montana that is based in sioux falls . as of december 31 2007 the company serves approximately 650 000 customers . the company s corporate headquarters are located in sioux falls while the headquarters for the south dakota operations and which was the headquarters for the old northwestern public service company are in huron sd . contents 1 history 2 controversies 3 external links 4 references history edit the montana operations formerly known as the montana power company were acquired around 2000 after that state passed some legislation allowing the electric utility industry to be unbundled . out of state investors led by pennsylvania power & light then immediately acquired the generation assets of montana power leaving that part of the territory vulnerable to high spot prices on the energy market creating some chronic discontent that led the montana public service commission to submit the one no vote that effectively nullified a potential sale of northwestern to babcock & brown infrastructure of australia . in 2014 northwestern purchased the dams that were originally part of montana power for 900 million from the ppl corporation . 1 controversies edit in march 2003 a class action was filed against northwestern corp claiming that defendants artificially inflated the stock price through material omissions and materially false and misleading statements . 2 a 41 million settlement fund was established in 2005 . on april 1 2003 as a result of the ongoing evaluation and review of certain accounting entries northwestern said it expects to restate prior unaudited quarterly results for the first three quarters of 2002 . 3 in march 2009 northwestern energy was involved with a gas explosion in bozeman montana . the explosion destroyed several businesses and killed one person . by november the company was sued by numerous owners of the destroyed businesses . 4 external links edit official website references edit http www.hydroworld.com articles 2014 11 northwestern energy closes deal to purchase ppl montana hydroelectric facilities.html class action lawsuit against northwestern corp . northwestern requests extension to file 2002 annual report on form 10 k ; company further updates projected 2002 charges to approximately 880 million ; company ev . explosion . retrieved 2013 02 22 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title northwestern corporation & oldid 715112339 categories companies listed on the new york stock exchangecompanies based in sioux falls south dakotacompanies based in south dakotare established companiespower companies of the united statesnatural gas companies of the united statesnorthwestern corporation damshidden categories articles needing additional references from october 2008all articles needing additional references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 13 april 2016 at 19 46 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view