Kerkorian Makes $4.5B Offer for Chrysler

[Ultra]

Discuss......


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OAJ8900&show_article=1

DETROIT (AP) - Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. on Thursday made a $4.5 billion cash offer for DaimlerChrysler AG's troubled U.S.-based Chrysler unit.

Tracinda in a statement said it wants "to build and strengthen" the troubled automaker and "will offer the UAW and Chrysler management the opportunity to participate as equity partners in the transaction."

[Tifosi]

I don't trust Kerkrian...never did.  He seems to be out to drive up the price of the stock of whatever company he wants to sell off all the shares he owns.  All the merger talks at GM and takeover attempts at Chrysler a few years ago were just that.


I have a personal stake in Chrysler, my father retired from there.  I just think that Kerkorian is more interested in his own profit than product...if people thin that Chrysler builds junk now, just wait until he's at the helm...



Dan

[Ultra]

If Kerkorian doesn't end it I still think someone will sooner or later.

[MG]

think that Kerkorian is more interested in his own profit than product

What's wrong with that? Its called capitalism, a system that we purport to embrace with every fiber of our beings here in the US of A.  Are you a communist or something?   




I am needling you to make a point, amigo. Put that baseball bat DOWN!  Kerkorian does have a track record and at least he is up front about his motives and maneuverings. He is not a philanthropist. He is all about making as much money as possible. Isn't that the American way?   

Whether is SHOULD be the American way is quite a separate discussion.......

[Otto Puzzell]

Kerkorian is noted for doing what Warren Buffett, Eddie Lampert, and others have done. Buy up a floundering business, sell off the surplus assets and real estate, and drive up the stock price of the remaining bits. Buffett took a moribund shirt company and spun it into a huge moneymaker.

In Lampert's case (he's the brains behind the Sears / Kmart merger), he took Kmart stock from from $15 a share to over $100 before leveraging the Sears buyout (he was already the largest Sears shareholder before the deal).  Since then, Lampert's MO has been to sell off closed stores in urban areas where retail space is at a premium, versus do anything creative or visionary with the stores that remain open. His 'innovative' idea of offering a limited selection of Craftsman tools at Kmart stores hasn't had much of an impact.   

Buffet didn't tinker with the management of the companies Berkshire Hathaway bought. Lampert tinkers quite a bit more, and the results have not been as strong. I think Kerkorian is more likely to emulate Lampert than Buffett. I expect he'll play puppet master, installing and firing managers at a whim, selling of assets, etc. 

My $0.02

[Tifosi]

I'll put down my baseball bat when I'm sure Kerkorian isn't going to take a hatchet to my mother's pension...he put Chrysler through the wringer a few years ago, and wanted to install Lee Iacocca at the helm of the company after he would have gained control of it.  Lido was out to lunch before he retired.


Dan

[GRAYWOLF]

Since other's have come up...how did Soros get his $$$?

[MG]

how did Soros get his $$$?

By being VERY good (and ruthless) at international arbitrage (an advanced type of money laundering.) He probably bankrupted millions along the way.

Dan, I fully understand your concern for your mom's pension. BUT.........under the American system of things, her interest is way down on the list of priorities. The ONLY ones who might step in if there is a default on pension obligations are the taxpayers. Kirkorian and his ilk could give a shit about  your mom.  Once again, I posit that this is just the economic game as played in America. Whether it SHOULD be played this way is another discussion entirely.

Here in Vo Disland, we used to have two downtown department stores before the advent of the suburban mall.  One of them was owned by a fellow name of Bruce Sundlun, who drove around Providence in a very stylish black Rolls Royce.  Ol' Brucie pulled the plug one day, took a bankruptcy bath and left folks who had worked for him for 35 years or more with not one penny of retirement benefits.  My folks had several friends who's lives promptly went right down the shitter because of it.

But Bruce kept his Roller and his mansion in Newport. He went on to become governor of the not so great state of Rhode Island and now the airport terminal is named for him.  The people he screwed worked till the day they died, thank you very much.

I offer that story NOT to approve of the way things are but simply to illustrate HOW things are. That such abuses are condoned and in fact approved of in our culture is a devastating indictment of our culture.  At least in my opinion.  But I am a well known communist and dangerous radical, so take my puerile maunderings for what they are  worth, if anything.     

[Rich]

They say the best things in life are free
But you can give 'em to the birds and bees
I want Money.....

[GRAYWOLF]

Only you can control your future. It is up to you to plan for your retirement, you can not rely on someone else to do your work for you...