Stream Energy and NRG Energy have entered into a $300 million acquisition agreement.

The agreement will see NRG Energy acquire steam’s “retail electricity and natural gas businesses”.

An MLM company selling off its retail customers? This can’t be good…

The NRG Energy deal excludes Stream Energy’s MLM operations, which one would assume are practically worthless without retail customers.

The exclusion also raises the question of whether Stream Energy distributors will have their retail energy customers taken away from them.

There still appears to be the wireless business to fall back on, although whether or not that’s enough to sustain Stream Energy’s ongoing MLM operations is unclear.

What we do know is the NRG Energy deal with see Stream Energy continue its MLM opportunity under a new brand.

While NRG won’t own that brand, it “will be the exclusive network marketing partner to the retail energy business NRG is acquiring.”

This suggests NRG Energy will pay Stream Energy’s new brand a commission, which presumably will fund affiliate commissions.

If that’s the case then it sounds like Stream Energy affiliates won’t lose their retail customers – although what they subsequently earn might be drastically reduced.

As I write this there’s no official acknowledgement of the NRG Energy deal on Stream Energy’s website or social media accounts.

In related news, reporting on the NRG Energy deal revealed a settlement in the Stream Energy class-action lawsuit.

Our last update on the case dated back to October 2016, wherein the certification of class-representation was upheld on appeal.

The case, originally filed in 2009, was settled via mediation in late 2017.

According to the terms of the settlement;

A Settling Class member who was on Stream’s Variable Rate Electricity Plan at any point between June 1, 2011 and February 29, 2015 (Time Period 1) will receive payment in the amount of 5% of all amounts he or she paid to Stream for service provided under the Variable Rate Electricity Plan during Time Period 1.

A Settling Class member who was on Stream’s Variable Rate Electricity Plan at any point between March 1, 2015 and the date of preliminary approval (Time Period 2) will receive payment in the amount of 2% of all amounts he or she paid to Stream for service provided under the Variable Rate Electricity Plan during time Period 2.

Stream Energy also covered the plaintiff class’ attorney fees, up to $1,050,000.

The settlement received court approval on September 28th, 2018.

According to the Stream Energy settlement website, the claim submission deadline has already passed.

Pending details of Stream Energy’s rebranded MLM opportunity, stay tuned…