which by then was the largest independent natural gas marketing firm in the United States and had revenues of more than US$2 billion. NGC purchased Trident NGL in 1994 in a deal worth more than $750 million. That same year, it also established a partnership with Nova (also known as Novagas Clearinghouse, a natural gas marketing company based in Canada) and British Gas, which gave both companies a financial stake in NGC. NGC Corporation Natural Gas Clearinghouse shortened its name to NGC Corporation in 1995 after its merger with Trident NGL closed. It became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange that same year. By 1996, it had grown to US$550 million in assets, and carried US$525 million in long-term debt. NGC Corporation also established several subsidiaries to enable it to enter the electrical generation, marketing, and sales areas. Electric Clearinghouse sold electricity, and the Energy Store marketed it. In August 1996, it purchased the natural gas gathering, marketing, and processing operations of Chevron Corporation. The latter deal gave Chevron a 29 percent stake in NGC. NGC followed that deal by buying Destec Energy for US$1.27 billion. The deal required NGC Corporation to sell Destec's power generation subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom for US$407 million, although NGC Corporation retained Destec's 20 domestic gas-fired power plants. Dynegy history Growth In June 1998, NGC Corporation changed its name to Dynegy, Inc. The company's original slogan was "We believe in people." Nova announced two months later that it was seeking to sell its stake in Dynegy. Dynegy bought Illinova Corporation in 1999 in a deal worth US$1.75 billion and the assumption of US$2.25 billion of Illinova Corp. debt. The deal also allowed Nova and British Gas to sell their stake in Dynegy. Dynegy also began branching into areas outside natural gas and electrical generation. In August 2000, the company announced that it had purchased Extant Inc., a broadband provider building a nationwide fiber optic network, for US$152.5 million. Dynegy, along with Enron, El Paso Corporation, Reliant Energy, and several other energy companies, was accused of price manipulation and other fraudulent practices during the California electricity crisis in 2000 and 2001. The case against Dynegy was dismissed in 2003. In 2001, Dynegy made a white knight US$8 billion takeover bid for Enron, which was saddled with $13 billion in debt and whose stock