The meteoric rise and fall of Enron is one of the most notorious tales in the history of corporate America. Enron was the seventh-largest company in the United States in 2000 and 'Fortune' magazine had declared it as America's "most innovative company" for six straight years; its share price had climbed from $ 10 a share in 1991 to over $ 90 a share in August 2000 while its revenue jumped to more than $100 billion. ("Rise and Fall of an Energy Giant") No one could have predicted that before the end of the following year the "rising star" of corporate America would be filing for bankruptcy, shaking investor confidence to the core and signalling the end of the longest bull-run in the American stock exchange's history. The ramifications of the dramatic collapse still reverberate in global financial and energy markets as well the U.S. courts, where a number of former Enron managers face serious criminal charges. This fairy tale rise and ignominious fall of Enron is the subject of this paper.

             The Rise.

             The Pipeline and Energy Company: Enron Corporation was formed as a result of a 1985 merger of Houston Natural Gas (HNG) and InterNorth-a Nebraska based gas pipeline company. Kenneth Lay, CEO of HNG, became Enron's first CEO and proceeded to make it the first nationwide natural gas pipeline. Enron soon became involved in in the transmission and distribution of electricity in addition to gas in the US as well as the development, construction, and operation of power plants and pipelines worldwide. Its profits were, however, modest as in those days, energy was a government-sanctioned monopoly. (Lindstorm).

             Taking Advantage of Deregulation: Things began to change as the gas and electricity sectors were deregulated by the early 1990s. Kenneth Lay decided to take advantage of the deregulation and hired Jeffery Skilling a young consultant with a banking and liability management background, in 1990-making him the CEO of a new division in Enron- the Enron Finance Corp.