Enron began as the Northern Natural Gas Company, which was formed in 1931 in Omaha, Nebraska. It was reorganized in 1979 as the leading subsidiary of a holding company, InterNorth. In 1985, it bought the smaller Houston Natural Gas and changed its name to Enron in the process.[2] The merged company initially named itself "HNG/InterNorth Inc.", even though InterNorth was the nominal survivor. It built a large headquarters complex in Omaha. However, the departure of ex-InterNorth CEO Samuel Segnar six months after the merger allowed former HNG CEO Kenneth Lay to become CEO of the newly merged company. Lay soon moved Enron's headquarters to Houston and began to thoroughly re-brand the business. Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation (formerly Enron Corporation) (former NYSE ticker symbol:...more >> ENE) was an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. Enron employed around 22,000 people (McLean & Elkind, 2003) and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, pulp and paper, and communications companies, with claimed revenues of $111 billion in 2000.