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Enron's big 'E' bought for small change

C Bryson Hull in Houston

Enron's notoriety just isn't what it used to be.

One of the famed tilted "E" Enron logo signs that once adorned the front of the fallen energy giant's Houston headquarters sold for a paltry $10,500, less than a fourth of what a virtually identical sign sold for two months ago.

It is the third Enron logo sign, dubbed the "crooked E," to sell at Enron's three post-bankruptcy auctions, and by far the cheapest.

The first, from the company's London offices, sold for $15,000 earlier this year, and another one from a Houston office building that housed overflow Enron employees sold for $45,000 at a packed Sept 25 auction.

The owner of the latest "E" is Fred Massey, a 55-year-old Houston chemist and businessman who bought it as a Christmas present for his wife.

"The whole thing was strictly kind of spontaneous. I walked in on it and haven't decided what to do with it yet," Massey told Reuters. "It would make a hell of a Christmas ornament, wouldn't it?"

But Massey created a bit of an Enron-like scandal of his own when he initially identified himself to reporters as Bobby Shackouls, using the name of a neighbor.

'DISCO E'

The problem is his neighbor happens to be the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Burlington Resources Inc, a well-known Houston oil and gas exploration and production company. Massey later said he fibbed in an effort to keep his high-profile Christmas present a secret.

"He is a friend of Bobby and was buying it for his own wife, and didn't want her to know about it," Burlington Resources spokesman James Bartlett said. Shackouls was out of town on Tuesday and had no knowledge of it, Bartlett said.

Enron has another chance to net a rich bid for a very famous sign that appeared in countless TV broadcasts chronicling the company's downfall. The spinning, lighted "crooked E" sign that stood in Enron's lobby until last month, dubbed the "Disco E," goes on the auction block on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Enron goes into the used car business with the auction of 18 former company vehicles. The cream of the crop are a 1999 black Lincoln Navigator and a black 2000 Cadillac Deville, both of which ferried Enron's top executives around Houston.

The Caddy has just 14,480 km on it, Enron spokeswoman Karen Denne said. The remaining sixteen vehicles are mostly Dodge or Ford pickups used by the company's failed broadband unit.

A pile of random business equipment, from computers to televisions and even power tools such as band saws, are also up for grabs. About 150,000 Enron trinkets like T-shirts, bags and hats are being sold individually at online auctions.

Interest in the current auction, which is set to end on Thursday, is down. Denne said that fewer than 200 people attended in person this time, whereas more than 3,000 attended in September. All proceeds are being used to pay off Enron's creditors, who are owed billions.

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