InterNorth Inc. was a large energy company headquartered at the

Northern Natural Gas Building The Northern Natural Gas Building, also known as the 2223 Dodge Street Building, is located at 2223 Dodge Street in the Park East neighborhood of Downtown Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It is a , 19-story skyscraper that ranks seventh, among Oma ...

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County, Nebraska, Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. List of ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, specializing in

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon ...

pipelines but also a force in the

plastics industry The plastics industry manufactures polymer materials—commonly called plastics—and offers services in plastics important to a range of industries, including packaging, building and construction, electronics, aerospace, and transportation. It is ...

, coal and petroleum exploration and production. It was a predecessor to

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional compani ...

Corporation. InterNorth was founded in 1931 as Northern Natural Gas Company. Over the years, it acquired several other subsidiaries, such as Northern Liquid Fuels Company, Northern Petrochemicals Company, Northern Propane Gas Company, Northern Border Pipeline Company, and People's Natural Gas. In 1979, Northern Natural Gas reorganized as a holding company, InterNorth. They operated the largest natural gas pipeline in North America (approximately 36,000 miles of pipeline). In 1980-81, the company launched an unsolicited takeover bid for Crouse-Hinds Company, which wound up being acquired by

Cooper Industries Cooper Industries was an American worldwide electrical products manufacturer headquartered in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1833, the company had seven operating divisions including Bussmann electrical and electronic fuses; Crouse-Hinds and CEAG ex ...

the following year. The company continued to pursue expansion opportunities. In 1983, the company purchased the Belco Petroleum Company, a

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by '' Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

oil exploration and development company founded by Arthur Belfer; and, in 1985, reached a deal, seen by some as overpriced, to acquire the smaller competitor Houston Natural Gas Company (HNG). InterNorth was an arbitrage target and acquired HNG as a poison pill. Following its takeover of HNG, InterNorth was briefly renamed HNG/Internorth. It was renamed Enteron briefly before becoming Enron six months later. Although intended to secure InterNorth's independence, the HNG takeover proved a "wag-the-dog" transaction: despite an initial plan for dual headquarters in Omaha and Houston, with InterNorth CEO Samuel Segnar in control, the company soon was based entirely in

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

and run by HNG's CEO, Ken Lay. Initially, Lay and his secretary wanted to change the company's name to Enteron, due to the positive connotations of the words "enter" and "on', though it was soon discovered to be a Greek term for digestive system or intestine. The markets reacted with hilarity and a month later he changed the name again to Enron, costing many millions in advertising, signage, stationery and contracts. The merged company was a target of corporate raider Irwin Jacobs of Minneapolis. Lay "borrowed" over $400 million from the employee stock ownership program to buy back Jacobs stock, so he could keep his job and cover other financial losses of Enron as early as 1987. Lay then froze the ESOP for seven years except for retirement or death benefits. The most valuable asset of Internorth had been Northern Natural Gas, which was at one time the largest natural gas distributor in North America. After the bankruptcy of Enron, Northern Natural Gas briefly became part 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. Dynegy was acquired by Vistra Corp on April 9, ...

Corp, whose chairman, Daniel Dienstbier, had been president of Northern before Ken Lay seized control of Internorth. Dynegy then sold Northern to

Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net w ...

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from ...

who moved it back to Omaha.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Internorth Enron Natural gas companies of the United States Companies based in Omaha, Nebraska