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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Lights Dimming on FirstEnergy Stock
Aired August 19, 2003 - 07:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The company in the middle of the blackout controversy is now under the spotlight. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." The company we're talking about is FirstEnergy of Akron, Ohio.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: FirstEnergy.
O'BRIEN: And how is their stock looking, first?
SERWER: It got killed yesterday. I mean, let's face it. It was down about 14 percent earlier in the day, Soledad. It ended down about 9.3 percent, which is a big hit. Wall Street is obviously concerned.
And you think about this: Last week this company is sailing along, and all of a sudden, boom! They're in the middle of this controversy. Not that they haven't had troubles before, as more and more investigations looking into the company. You can see that they've had trouble with their nuclear plants, with pollution violations.
And now, there is also talk about links between the top executives and the Bush administration. I am shocked that there is gambling in this casino.
Let's look at Peter Burg, who is the CEO of the company. He hosted -- there he is. Hello, Mr. Burg. He makes a lot of money running this utility, too. On June 30 of this year, he hosted a $600,000 fund-raiser. And guess who the featured speaker was? That's right, Dick Cheney, the vice president.
Anthony Alexander, the president and COO of FirstEnergy, was a pioneer for the Bush campaign -- that means he raised $100,000 and he also contributed -- there he is -- also contributed $100,000 as well.
Critics have complained that the Bush administration has very close ties to the energy business. Of course, Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton, and when the president was the governor of Texas, there were a lot of contributions made from the Enron Corporation as well.
O'BRIEN: The company has said it is too early to lay all of the blame on us.
SERWER: Yes. Thank you pointing that out. It is true. I don't want to rush to judgment here.
O'BRIEN: Our legal department will be happy with that.
SERWER: Yes, exactly. Because it will take time to investigate, but it is true that the problems seem to stem from its territory, no question about that.
O'BRIEN: Do we have time to get a preview of the market this morning?
SERWER: We do. We should, because yesterday was a big, big day. The markets were up. The Dow was up over 90 points -- exactly 90 -- well, a little bit over 90 points. I take it back. We're crossing the 9400 threshold there, a 14-month high.
And this morning, futures are up again. A lot of retailers are looking good, Soledad, this morning. Staples coming out with some very good numbers, so we'll be checking that.
O'BRIEN: Good news there. All right, Andy, thanks.
SERWER: OK, yes.
O'BRIEN: It's always nice to see you again after a couple of weeks off.
SERWER: Yes, you too. It's to see you.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Stock>
Aired August 19, 2003 - 07:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The company in the middle of the blackout controversy is now under the spotlight. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business." The company we're talking about is FirstEnergy of Akron, Ohio.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: FirstEnergy.
O'BRIEN: And how is their stock looking, first?
SERWER: It got killed yesterday. I mean, let's face it. It was down about 14 percent earlier in the day, Soledad. It ended down about 9.3 percent, which is a big hit. Wall Street is obviously concerned.
And you think about this: Last week this company is sailing along, and all of a sudden, boom! They're in the middle of this controversy. Not that they haven't had troubles before, as more and more investigations looking into the company. You can see that they've had trouble with their nuclear plants, with pollution violations.
And now, there is also talk about links between the top executives and the Bush administration. I am shocked that there is gambling in this casino.
Let's look at Peter Burg, who is the CEO of the company. He hosted -- there he is. Hello, Mr. Burg. He makes a lot of money running this utility, too. On June 30 of this year, he hosted a $600,000 fund-raiser. And guess who the featured speaker was? That's right, Dick Cheney, the vice president.
Anthony Alexander, the president and COO of FirstEnergy, was a pioneer for the Bush campaign -- that means he raised $100,000 and he also contributed -- there he is -- also contributed $100,000 as well.
Critics have complained that the Bush administration has very close ties to the energy business. Of course, Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton, and when the president was the governor of Texas, there were a lot of contributions made from the Enron Corporation as well.
O'BRIEN: The company has said it is too early to lay all of the blame on us.
SERWER: Yes. Thank you pointing that out. It is true. I don't want to rush to judgment here.
O'BRIEN: Our legal department will be happy with that.
SERWER: Yes, exactly. Because it will take time to investigate, but it is true that the problems seem to stem from its territory, no question about that.
O'BRIEN: Do we have time to get a preview of the market this morning?
SERWER: We do. We should, because yesterday was a big, big day. The markets were up. The Dow was up over 90 points -- exactly 90 -- well, a little bit over 90 points. I take it back. We're crossing the 9400 threshold there, a 14-month high.
And this morning, futures are up again. A lot of retailers are looking good, Soledad, this morning. Staples coming out with some very good numbers, so we'll be checking that.
O'BRIEN: Good news there. All right, Andy, thanks.
SERWER: OK, yes.
O'BRIEN: It's always nice to see you again after a couple of weeks off.
SERWER: Yes, you too. It's to see you.
O'BRIEN: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
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