 E.ON wanted to focus on its core business of electric utilities, and assigned Merrill Lynch to sell MEMC.Merrill was unable to find a buyer until MEMC announced that it was on the verge of illiquidity in the middle of 2001.Finally in October 2001 E.ON was able to agree on a deal with the private equity company Texas Pacific Group (TPG), which purchased E.ON's stake in MEMC for a symbolic dollar and offered MEMC $150million in credit lines.