Naturally, some of this e-mail was not exactly business related. (I'm being delicate.) "Enron employees call such personal exposure abusive and an invasion of their privacy." But, hey, I'm curious. What could I learn about the internal corporate real estate process?

So I poked around Enron's e-mail looking for real estate terms (after clicking link above, click "Search iCONECT 24/7," then Enron Email). Mostly, I found mundane correspondence about basic documents like assignments of leases, asset purchase agreements, counterparty agreements, and default notices. But I also found some intriguing e-mails, although they were difficult to put into context. (Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001.)

In January 2002, an Enron employee sounded confident negotiating a colocation agreement. "Having the ability to move to the Network Plus colo price in my back pocket is a plus" (#16309). But in February 2002, an employee worried about negative publicity while trying to negotiate a services contract. "Competitors are playing the Enron card, i.e., Trammell Crow" (#88445). And for some reason, in June 2002, Cushman Realty sent Enron an extensive overview of the Denver office market for May 2001(#160068).

Bottom line: E-mail correspondence is important. But it's only part of the highly complex process of business communication. What do you think?

--Peter Pike