The story
E.ON came into existence in 2000 through the merger of energy companies VEBA and VIAG (Vereinigte Industrieunternehmungen AG, "United Industrial Enterprises Corporation"). In the United Kingdom, Powergen was acquired by E.ON in January 2002. In 2003 E.ON entered the gas market through the €10.3 billion acquisition of Ruhrgas (later: E.ON Ruhrgas). E.ON Ruhrgas was represented in more than 20 countries in Europe.
E.ON also acquired Sydkraft in Sweden and OGK-4 (now: Unipro) in Russia. Sydkraft, Powergen, and OGK-4 were rebranded to E.ON Sverige, E.ON UK, and E.ON Russia respectively. In the United States, E.ON inherited Louisville, Kentucky-based Louisville Gas & Electric Energy, via the acquisition of Powergen, and operated it as E.ON US, until 2010, when E.ON US was sold to Allentown, Pennsylvania-based PPL Corporation for $7.625 billion. The sale was closed on 1 November 2010, with E-ON US becoming LG&E and KU Energy.
E.ON attempted to acquire Endesa in 2006, however this acquisition was overtaken by a joint bid from Italian utility Enel in conjunction with Spanish company Acciona. E.ON acquired about €10 billion of assets that the enlarged Enel was required to divest under EU competition rulings.
In July 2009, the European Commission fined GDF Suez and E.ON €553 million each over arrangements on the MEGAL pipeline. By that time it was the second biggest fine imposed by the European Commission and the first in the energy sector.
In 1975, Ruhrgas and Gaz de France concluded a deal according to which they agreed not to sell gas in each other's home market. The deal was abandoned in 2005.
In 2009, E.ON and RWE established an equally owned joint venture Horizon Nuclear Power to develop around 6,000 MWe of new nuclear capacity in the United Kingdom by 2025 at the Wylfa and Oldbury sites. However, in March 2012 E.ON and RWE announced they were pulling out of the project due to difficult financial conditions.
In August 2011, the company announced a possible loss of 10,000 of its 85,600 employees due to the German decision to close all the country's nuclear power stations by 2022, instead of by 2036 as the Bundestag had decided on 28 October 2010.
In May 2014, the UK energy sector regulator Ofgem ordered the company to pay 330,000 of its customers a total of £12 million due to poor sales practices the company engaged in between June 2010 and December 2013. At the time it was the largest penalty levied against a UK energy supplier.
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In November 2014, E.ON announced it would abstain from fossil energy in the future. It transferred its fossil energy businesses into a new company, Uniper, which started operating on 1 January 2016. E.ON sold a 53% stake in the business through a listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in September 2016. In 2017, it agreed to sell its remaining stake in Uniper to the Finnish power company Fortum. The deal was finalized in June 2018, and Uniper continues to operate as an independent entity. However E.ON still owns coal power in Turkey, through its 50% share of Enerjisa.
In July 2018, E.ON announced that 500 jobs would be lost in the United Kingdom, blaming the energy price cap due to be implemented by Ofgem.
In November 2020, E.ON announced that in the next two years, almost 700 jobs will be cut due to the migration of customers to the new platform that will be completed by the end of 2022.
In 2021, E.ON was ranked no. 56 in the Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index (AERI) that covers 120 oil, gas, and mining companies involved in resource extraction north of the Arctic Circle.
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of the Republic of Turkey Berat Albayrak attended the public offering gong ceremony of Enerjisa Enerji AŞ, whose shareholders are Hacı Ömer Sabancı Holding and German energy company E.ON.
Minister Berat Albayrak stated that the existence of a financially strong, stable and transparent energy market is a must for a solid economy, and drew attention to the fact that an average of 55 billion dollars of energy imports have been realized annually in the last 10 years.
In May 2026, E.ON announced it had reached an agreement to acquire UK supplier OVO Energy, subject to regulatory approval. The Competition and Markets Authority approved the acquisition on 1 October 2026, and it completed on 8 October 2026. The combined company is Britain's second-largest energy supplier, holding a 25% market share.
From Wikipedia’s article on E.ON, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6