Top Five Business Stories of 2007

by Todd Maternowski

The mortgage crisis, job cuts and store closings seemed to dominate most of the business page headlines in 2007. There were five stories, however, that seemed to linger longer than most: these five stories, chosen more or less at random from the thousands we've put up this past year, were some of my personal favorites --for a number of different reasons. Here are the Top Five Business Stories of 2007.

ExxonMobil attains record profits without overcharging: Following a 2006 in which Exxon set the record for most profitable year for any company in human history, the first two quarters of 2007 looked extremely promising for the titanic energy company. Not surprisingly, with the insane amount of profits being generated, it was only a matter of time before everyone --even the great state of Alabama -- wanted a piece of that delicious fossil-fuel pie. But ExxonMobil didn't bulldoze their way to the pinnacle of corporate achievement by giving money away to just anybody: while relative energy chumps like TXU fought publicly with embarrassing fines, Exxon laid down the lumber and pulled out a couple of big wins in the courts. Most impressively, while 99% of the country was convinced that ExxonMobil was raking consumers over the coals at the pumps, Exxon's lobbyists made damn sure that the FTC was amongst that 1% that didn't, and thus attained the #5 top story of 2007.

Affiliated Computer Services shows rich, old white men can get into hissy Springer-esque catfights too: The Dallas-based technology consulting firm had a pretty good year in 2007, pulling out multi-million dollar deals all over the globe. While the company was thriving, ACS Chairman Darwin Deason decided to pair up with Cerberus, and attain a highly-controversial stake in the company. Shareholders rebelled, thinking they were getting bilked by the chairman, and Cerberus withdrew its offer. Darwin got a little pissed at some of his directors, and went public with a call for their dismissal. The Directors shot back with their own public statement, took their balls and went home. The snarling, vicious board-room politics are rarely put so brazenly out in the open, but when egos this big are involved, you can bet the curses and fists will start flying, making this the #4 top story of 2007.

Trinity River Toll vote proves that Dallasites...wait, what exactly did it prove? After over a decade of public wrangling, private backstabbing and a terrifically Orwellian ballot initiative in which yes meant no, the real estate and tollway interests finally got what they wanted -- a mandate from the people of Dallas to just get the damn thing over with. Over some strong opposition from environmental and engineering groups, the ballot passed in November by a 6 point margin, 53% to 47%. The losers, led by Angela Hunt, vowed to make sure the winners kept to their promises. Considering the history of this bloated park project thus far, that should lead to a plethora of terrifically controversial business stories for years to come. For bringing ten years of city politics to light, the Trinity Toll Tiff gets my vote as the #3 top story of 2007.

South Dallas and Lancaster get to work on the Dallas Logistics Hub: For reasons we Pegasus staffers still only vaguely understand, no DFW city gets as riled up as Lancaster. Where else can the "promise" of 60,000 jobs be met with scorn, derision and a public policy flame war? The developers want us to know that jobs will be created, buzz generated and the South Dallas economy uplifted: the long-suffering citizens of Lancaster, Ovilla and Red Oak are not quite as decided on the matter. Construction just started on this massive city project, and our favorite frequent commenters in Lancaster and environs will let us know about it every step of the way, making this the #2 top story of 2007.

TXU is bought out: This was the business soap opera to end all others, and the sheer amount of twists and turns dominated the biz headlines for all 12 months of the year. It all started when TXU decided to accept a buyout proposal from KKR, stopped the whole dirty coal plant idea, then immediately got hit by the Texas PUC for overcharging violations. In response to the possibility of a fine, a senior TXU exec threatened the state and people of Texas with plant shutdowns, the company pushed the idea of the buyout on its employees and shareholders, and the CEO promised to resign after the buyout. But wait!--what about other possible suitors? No, wait, there weren't any man enough to step up to the plate. While this was going on, some Pakistani banker was under investigation for insider trading on the buyout, TXU's profits dropped through the floor, Joe Barton wanted answers, KKR proved to be nowhere near as financially solvent as they claimed, and the AARP came out against the whole thing. In the end, the buyout was approved, TXU's board made a killing and Warren Buffett swept in to pick up the scraps. Without a doubt, the TXU Buyout Saga was the top biz story of 2007, and sets the bar high for any company hoping to top that in 2008.