Enron Corp. - University of California | Office of The President

244. On 7/19/00, CitiGroup issued a report on Enron. It rated Enron a "Buy," with a $100
price target and forecast 00 and 01 EPS of $1.43 and $1.70 and a 20% EPS growth rate for Enron.
It also stated:
Maintain ... rating on Enron following announcement of a 20-year exclusive
agreement to deliver Blockbuster Video's entire movie library to customers over
broadband networks.... Enron plans to roll out the service in two test medium-sized
test cities around year-end, with roll out to several more cities in 2001.
... We consider this to be a marquis announcement by Enron. In our view, the
credibility of the partners goes a long way toward validating the "content delivery"
part of Enron's two-part telecommunications strategy (the other part is bandwidth
trading).
245. On 7/20/00, the Los Angeles Times reported on the Enron/Blockbuster deal:
"Enron is the leader of the pack and I think this could be the beginning of
streaming of content over its network," said Ron Barone, an analyst at
PaineWebber Inc. who covers Enron. "Signing a company like Blockbuster is a
reassuring signal of the validity of their strategy."
246. On 7/24/00, Enron announced better-than-expected 2ndQ 00 results:
Enron Corp. announced today a 26 percent increase in earnings to $0.34 per
diluted share for the second quarter of 2000. Net income increased 30 percent to
$289 million during the quarter....
"Enron has completed another excellent quarter," said Kenneth L. Lay,
chairman and CEO of Enron.... "Profitability of Enron Energy Services continued
to escalate, and new contracts totaled $3.8 billion."
* * *
Retail Energy Services: Enron Energy Services reported IBIT of $24
million in the second quarter compared to a $26 million loss in the same period
last year.... Enron Energy Services continues to sustain higher levels of contracting,
as evidenced by the addition during the quarter of contracts representing 3.8 billion
of customers' future energy expenditures.... Enron Energy Services is firmly on track
to achieve the full year contracting target of $16 billion.
* * *
Broadband Services: ... During the second quarter, Enron Broadband sold
a portion of its U.S. dark fiber to balance capacity in key regions. Enron's
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