Best of luck with your meeting today.  You see this story?  Most interesting quotes I've seen yet from Watson.

Best,
Jeff

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Business/Financial Desk; Section C
THE MARKETS
Suitor for Enron Receives Approval From Wall St.
By ALEX BERENSON

11/13/2001
The New York Times
Page 13, Column 1
c. 2001 New York Times Company

Wall Street found nothing but good news in Dynegy's $9 billion takeover of the Enron Corporation yesterday. 
Three days after Dynegy, an energy marketing and trading company based in Houston, agreed to take over Enron, its giant crosstown rival, Dynegy executives came to New York to assure investors that the deal would sharply increase their company's profits. They met a receptive audience.
Dynegy stock closed yesterday at $44.31, up $5.55, or 14.3 percent. Since last Wednesday, when news of a possible takeover emerged, Dynegy's stock has risen more than one-third. Enron closed at $9.24, up 61 cents, or 7.1 percent. 
After some initial uncertainty about the takeover, investors appear to have accepted Dynegy's view that the deal will give it a lucrative franchise in trading natural gas and electricity. Enron's stock fell almost 80 percent in the weeks leading up to the deal as Enron said it had overstated its earnings by almost $600 million since 1997 and forced out several top executives. 
But Chuck Watson, Dynegy's chairman, told investors repeatedly yesterday that Enron's problems were mainly a result of failed expansion efforts. He largely dismissed the concerns of some short-sellers and analysts that Enron might be hiding losses at its core energy trading operations. 
''There's nothing wrong with Enron's business,'' Mr. Watson said in an interview at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel after making a lunchtime presentation to analysts and investors. ''The people in it ought to be really upset that for the last several years, they have produced earnings and cash that have been invested in other businesses that are not making money.'' 
Enron's immediate problem was a crisis of confidence, which could have caused other companies to stop trading with it, Mr. Watson said. A $1.5 billion cash infusion from Dynegy should restore the confidence of Enron's business partners and keep Enron stable until the takeover is complete, he said. To bolster Enron further, J. P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup may each invest an additional $250 million, executives close to the deal said. The potential investments by J. P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup were reported yesterday in The Wall Street Journal. 
Mr. Watson said Dynegy would also move quickly to assuage Enron employees who are angry that Kenneth L. Lay, Enron's chairman, and other top executives sold hundreds of millions of dollars in stock in 2000 and this year as Enron's shares plunged. ''Right now, there's some animosity over there,'' he said. 
Many employees at Enron will get new grants of stock options when the acquisition is completed, he said. The company said it expected the deal to close by the end of the third quarter of next year, after extensive reviews from federal and state energy regulators and the Department of Justice. 
Mr. Watson predicted that the deal would lift Dynegy's earnings by 90 cents or more a share next year, to more than $3.45 a share. 
Analysts backed that view yesterday. ''Investments in noncore business distracted the attention of management and also took up capital,'' said Thomas Hamlin, an analyst at Wachovia Securities. Mr. Hamlin said he believed that Dynegy had obtained Enron, which reported more than $100 billion in revenue last year, for a bargain price. 
''It's not too often you get to take out the No. 7 Fortune 500 company and double your earnings in the meantime,'' he said. ''My guess is the stock is worth $70 per share.'' 
The deal could increase Dynegy's earnings by $1 to $2 a share next year, said Christopher Ellinghaus, an analyst at the Williams Capital Group. 
''That's a whopper,'' he said. ''It's a very good deal financially, certainly should be a good deal strategically, and provides some immediate balance-sheet backstop for Enron.'' 
Mr. Lay said in an interview that Enron had been forced to sell itself because of ''the relentlessness of all the articles and the shorts.'' 
''We realized that we needed to do something to stabilize the ship,'' he said. ''A good company was being badly tarnished.''

Photo: In Houston, the headquarters building of Dynegy Inc., the energy and marketing trading company, which is in a $9 billion takeover of Enron. (Asociated Press) 
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