Ding Dong the witch is dead!

[Drew Dowdell]

Link

Report: Kerkorian sells full stake in GM

General Motors' Corp.'s painful process of reinventing itself apparently will continue without Kirk Kerkorian, whose ownership of almost 10 percent of the world's largest automaker failed to become a lever for the changes he sought.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported in Friday's edition that the billionaire investor sold his entire remaining investment in GM -- 28 million shares -- at $29.95 a share, a transaction worth more than $800 million. The newspaper reported that the shares were sold to Bank of America, a key lender to Kerkorian..

[CARBIZ]

Phew...that's a relief. The last thing GM needs is another costly buy out, like Chrysler went through.

[Robert Hall]

Good to hear..maybe the senile old fool will check into a nursing home now.

[aaaantoine]

He at least got something out of it. I'm pretty sure he made money on the deal. Didn't he originally take stake in the company at about $20/share?

[Sixty8panther]

Why was he so evil again...? (honestly I'm asking)

[Cadillacfan]

Well, he's a corporate raider. He has a history of doing that. Just look up his bio.

[AxelTheRed]

Truly a great day in General Motors history.

[Drew Dowdell]

Why was he so evil again...? (honestly I'm asking)

222694[/snapback]

trying to force a "merger" with Nissan/Renault wasn't enough for you?

[SS427]

NA NA NAAA NA NA NA NA NAAA NA HEY HEY GOOD-BYE........AND KIRK MAKE SURE YOU DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU IN YOUR EVIL OLD A S.

Edited December 2, 2006 by SS427

[mjdart]

I'd rather see Gm's directors make decisions rather than an outside investor. I'm glad he wasn't able to force that merger.

[carstar]

it's better if gm didn't give a crap about it's shareholders.

[haypops]

Why was he so evil again...? (honestly I'm asking)

222694[/snapback]

Because he wanted to replace this:

with this:

[G. David Felt]

Shareholder accountability is very important to every company and the board does need to take this into account. But not at the threat of a single person. The board should have no direct employees of a company in my opinion so that it can truly stay objective.

This has been a major problem for companies. Just look at FORD, the Ford family has messed that company up more than helped it I believe.

I know that some of the Board members are also GM full time employees. I am willing to accept this as long as the majority are outside individuals.

This keeps a company on track for making better choices IMO.

[cletus8269]

Because he wanted to replace this:

with this:

223253[/snapback]

oh come on thats not evil... thats just stupidity trying to branch out and thrive. lucky for us someone found a case of stoopid b' gone. i think someone was putting it in his board meeting water and it finally reached it's thresh hold dose. hooray

[MyerShift]

Finally. Who cares if he did get something out of this, at least he didn't succeed with what he wanted.

This is great that GM doesn't have to worry about evil Captain Kirk.

[CARBIZ]

A diversified Board looks good on paper, but I believe the problem with many large corporations today is that nobody on the Board has any real ownership in the company they serve, nor do they necessarily even know anything about the business that company is in. Bankers and lawyers don't necessarily make good business people.

America (and Canada) were made great by people who had vested interests in the companies they built: Ford, Chrysler, Bell, Goodyear - all great names we recognize, but do we really understand that the strength of their companies lay in these men's hard work and commitment, as well as talents?

What vested interest does a Board member really have? If the company goes down, they just land another plum Board position on another Fortune 500 company and make their money there.

Maximizing shareholder value is not necessarily the way to run a company, long term. We need to stop being so short sighted. That is one of the main reasons GM is in such a mess.