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Enron Mail |
Elizabeth Sager 713-853-6349 -----Original Message----- From: =09Nettelton, Marcus =20 Sent:=09Thursday, August 16, 2001 1:30 PM To:=09Sager, Elizabeth Subject:=09FW: WSJ Skilling Interview Not to say I told you so about Teesside, but..... -----Original Message----- From: =09Kitchen, Louise =20 Sent:=09Thursday, August 16, 2001 12:59 PM To:=09Nettelton, Marcus; Wallumrod, Ellen; Port, David Subject:=09FW: WSJ Skilling Interview -----Original Message----- From: =09Jafry, Rahil =20 Sent:=09Thursday, August 16, 2001 12:18 PM To:=09Kitchen, Louise Subject:=09FW: WSJ Skilling Interview Enron's Skilling Cites Stock-Price Plunge As Main Reason for Leaving CEO Po= st By John R. Emshwiller 08/16/2001 The Wall Street Journal Page A2 (Co= pyright © 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) Jeffrey K. Skilling said that= the pressure he felt from Enron Corp.'s plummeting stock price was the mai= n reason he decided to resign Tuesday as the energy giant's chief executive= officer after only about six months in the job. In an interview yesterday= , the 47-year-old Mr. Skilling elaborated on his decision to leave Houston-= based Enron. On Tuesday, Mr. Skilling insisted he had resigned for "persona= l reasons" unrelated to Enron's business activities. In the interview, he = reiterated that he wasn't under any pressure to resign from the company's b= oard or Chairman Kenneth Lay, who has resumed the CEO's duties at the natio= n's biggest energy trader. However, yesterday Mr. Skilling said that his "= personal reasons" were deeply enmeshed with feelings that he had failed in = a crucial business area during his brief tenure as CEO. Calling the company= 's stock performance a "kind of ultimate score card," Mr. Skilling noted th= at Enron's share price had fallen by some 50% this year. Mr. Skilling said= he took that stock-price drop very personally. "I put a lot of pressure on= myself" for that decline, he said. "I felt I must not be communicating wel= l enough" with investors. He felt this particularly given Enron's strong fi= nancial results over the past several quarters, based largely on growing vo= lumes in its trading business, which covers a range of items, including ele= ctricity, pulp and paper. If the stock price had remained up "I don't thin= k I would have felt the pressure to leave," he said. In January, Enron top= ped $84 a share in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It closed Tue= sday, before the announcement of Mr. Skilling's resignation, at $42.93 a sh= are. As of 4 p.m. yesterday, Enron traded at $40.25, after falling below $3= 7 during the day. Mr. Skilling, who had been at Enron 11 years, said the d= epressed stock price was particularly tough to explain to fellow Enron empl= oyees, many of whom are shareholders. "People would say `What is going on w= ith the stock, Jeff?' I would have to say I didn't know. It has been frustr= ating," said Mr. Skilling. The self-portrait offered by Mr. Skilling in th= e interview is rather different from the widely held image of him as an amb= itious, bright and thick-skinned business strategist whose long-held goal h= ad been becoming Enron CEO. Mr. Skilling said that the "final straw" in his= decision to leave had come on a visit last week to England in connection w= ith the deaths of three Enron workers in a power-plant accident there. That= trip helped reinforce "how tenuous life is," said Mr. Skilling, who has th= ree children from a previous marriage and recently became engaged. While M= r. Skilling said Enron is in "great shape," his departure raised anxiety in= the investment community. Merrill Lynch, for instance, lowered its rating = on Enron to neutral from buy based on "uncertainty" created by the resignat= ion. Yesterday, an Enron spokesman confirmed that Mr. Lay plans to name tw= o executives to the existing "office of the chairman" within the next few d= ays or weeks. The spokesman said Mr. Lay hadn't yet revealed whom the two w= ould be. The office of the chairman had consisted of Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilli= ng. =09 Copyright ? 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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