by pup55 » Sun 12 Oct 2008, 10:46:49
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he best thing GM could hope for is to be bought by Toyota. The worst thing Toyota could do is buy GM.
Both correct statements.
Let's see....
There are 566 million shares of GM oustanding. At the current price of about $5 per share, this means you would only need about $1.4B to buy 50% of GM. Less than that, if you could manage to persuade the managers of the Dodge and Cox mutual fund to cooperate, since they own 10% of the company, and would be delighted to get some value for their original investment, which is no doubt bad at the moment.
I have to say we are not really talking about a lot of money, in light of the recent numbers that are being thrown around, including the Trillion dollar bailout, and the 60-trillion dollar pyramid of CDS's that is still out there waiting to implode.
So, somebody like Hyundai, with a lot of pocket money, and the need to expand their US dealer network, might be perfectly willing to do this. They could get control of the company, fire the management, keep the Saturn division, Cadillacs, Camaros and corvettes because 55 year olds still like them, keep the European division (Opal) which is perfectly capable of producing small, efficient cars that people like, and shut the rest of the place down, sowing salt into the earth like the Romans did to Carthage. Perhaps a televised implosion of GM HQ in Detroit, on National TV to generate publicity. I have driven a couple of Aveos lately, and like them a lot, so maybe keep those too.
As of 12-31-07 They had 45 Billion in long term debt. However, At that point, they had $24b in cash, and another $29B in receivables and inventory so that would break them just about even, assuming a lot of 07 chevys sitting on a lot someplace is worth anything close to what it is on the books for.
So this is doable by anyone who has the nerve to take the place over at the moment.