Pipe Dreams : Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron

This text presents an investigative reporter's inside story of one of the most spectacular business failures in decades: how Enron, one of the world's biggest, most innovative and most politically influential companies, undermined itself with greed, arrogance, hubris and mismanagement.

Enron was the seventh largest company in America, an innovator, an energy Goliath with operations on four continents, trading nearly $3 billion worth of natural gas, electricity and other commodities every day.

Yet in November 2001, after a month of turmoil and embarrassing disclosures, Enron agreed to be bought by its cross-town rival, Dynegy, for about $23 billion in stock and assumed debt.

Soon thereafter, the deal fell apart when it was revealed that Enron's debt was so massive it couldn't survive long enough to merge.

As Enron's value plunged, top executives began furiously lining their pockets while workers and shareholders lost billions.

Why did Enron fail? How could a company with so much talent, money and resources suddenly fall apart?

In "Pipe Dreams", Bryce tells the story of unethical deals, offshore accounts, accounting irregularities, corruption, fraud and skullduggery. He traces Enron's astounding transformations from a small regional gas pipeline company into an energy Goliath...and then tracks step-by-step, business decision by business decision, extra-marital affair by extra-marital affair, how, when and why the culture of Enron began to go rotten and who was responsible.