Kirkorian sells all GM stock

[Sage]

Wow.

 

[Keef]

Good. I don't know how that will effect GM, but I never felt very attached to that old man. Maybe it was his name--Kerkorian--or maybe it was his orangutan smile.

 

[kikie]

Don't know anything about this man, so I don't know if it's going to effect GM.

 

[Bram Turismo]

"Wow" indeed...Form an alliance with Nissan and Renault? Hmmm......

 

[harrytuttle]

Good. GM could use some bad news for once. Oh, wait....

 

[TopHat]

"Wow" indeed...Form an alliance with Nissan and Renault? Hmmm......

Renaults Alliance! What was GM attempting to do? Thats what killed AMC.

 

[YSSMAN]

I love how this man did his best to put all that GM has done in the past two years in jeopardy, and then proceeds to throw a hissy-fit, and sell-off his stock.

To be completely honest, he can blow it out is rear. It was plainly obvious that he was with GM only for the money and generally had little to no concept of how an automotive company should be run. You want to know why the company's cars were so bad for so long? Look to penny-pinchers like him, and you're at the root of the problem.

Good riddance!

Now that he's gone, maybe the folks at GM who have been making good decisions (ie Bob Lutz) will get his way more often in the company. There is still a long-road ahead in the recovery process, but the Zetas are on the way, and so too are the E2 cars... w00t!

 

[a6m5]

I love how this man did his best to put all that GM has done in the past two years in jeopardy, and then proceeds to throw a hissy-fit, and sell-off his stock.

To be completely honest, he can blow it out is rear. It was plainly obvious that he was with GM only for the money and generally had little to no concept of how an automotive company should be run. You want to know why the company's cars were so bad for so long? Look to penny-pinchers like him, and you're at the root of the problem.

Good riddance!

Now that he's gone, maybe the folks at GM who have been making good decisions (ie Bob Lutz) will get his way more often in the company. There is still a long-road ahead in the recovery process, but the Zetas are on the way, and so too are the E2 cars... w00t!

Are rich people really that stupid?

I agree that he was "in it for the money", and that's why I don't think he sold the share because he was mad, or to make a point.

Maybe there is another bump in the road ahead for GM that we don't know about. Perhaps he found a better investment.

 

[Omnis]

His name is Kirk Kirkorian...

I mean, if you want someone with a lack of creativity, the name alone should give you some kind of clue as to what kind of banal family he grew up in.

 

[exigeracer]

A GM/Renault/Nissan alliance is pretty creative though. Now I wonder if they ignored any radical change to their main strategies with this guy backing them, they'll just tumble back into the straight-line rut of producing increasingly boring cars all over again? I don't think that it's possible to deny that GM needed a change in mindset in the past several years, and now with a large absence of a man who financially was willing to change this mindset gone, what sort of chances is GM willing to take to pull around their hopes and profits?

 

[Keef]

Are rich people really that stupid?

I agree that he was "in it for the money", and that's why I don't think he sold the share because he was mad, or to make a point.

Maybe there is another bump in the road ahead for GM that we don't know about. Perhaps he found a better investment.

A better investment? Like Porsche? Kerkorian has lost so much money from his GM stock it isn't even funny. He probably sold it so he didn't go bankrupt. Yes, his only interest was making money. Like YSSMAN said, he doesn't know a thing about automotive customers and what they want, he doesn't know how to run a company that large, and he's just a big dummy, basically. Now GM doesn't have to worry about him chiming in whenever they want something.

 

[a6m5]

A better investment? Like Porsche?

I read an old CNN article today, that came out right after he sold the second set of shares. I guess the worth of the GM stocks he had sold at that point was about the same as the new investment he was making. I think it was the MGM Grand in Vegas.
Edit: Found a similar article. It was MGM Mirage.

Yes, his only interest was making money. Like YSSMAN said, he doesn't know a thing about automotive customers and what they want, he doesn't know how to run a company that large, and he's just a big dummy, basically. Now GM doesn't have to worry about him chiming in whenever they want something.

He actually wanted to run the GM?

 

[YSSMAN]

A GM/Renault/Nissan alliance is pretty creative though. Now I wonder if they ignored any radical change to their main strategies with this guy backing them, they'll just tumble back into the straight-line rut of producing increasingly boring cars all over again? I don't think that it's possible to deny that GM needed a change in mindset in the past several years, and now with a large absence of a man who financially was willing to change this mindset gone, what sort of chances is GM willing to take to pull around their hopes and profits?

Here was the problem with the Alliance to begin with; GM was already on track for vast improvements in quality, performance, and market share, and the introduction of Nissan/Renault in the mix certainly would have caused major issues within the company.

Simply put, Wagoner and Lutz have set the direction of where the company was going, and thus far we are beginning to see the fruits of their labor. Having Goshn on-board would have cause problems with his "cut costs, see if quality increases" plan would have worked out. Things were bad enough already, we don't need a Frenchman to make it worse.

What it comes down to with a man like Kirkorian gone, it allows for GM to get around the penny-pinching. We've already seen them abandoning those practices with the Aura and new GMT960 models, and given everything is due for a refresh very soon, almost everything should see a substantial increase in quality. Sure, profitability still counts, but GM has learned their lesson. In order to make profits, you have to sell cars to begin with. Thus, their cars need to be on-par, or better than the competition... And a little flag-waving always helps in that situation.

...GM has their footing, and the "loss" of Kerkorian means absolutely nothing to me, or any other GM fan. If anything, the company is better-off, and I believe the stock prices have proved that as well...

 

[Keef]

I read an old CNN article today, that came out right after he sold the second set of shares. I guess the worth of the GM stocks he had sold at that point was about the same as the new investment he was making. I think it was the MGM Grand in Vegas.
Edit: Found a similar article. It was MGM Mirage.


He actually wanted to run the GM?

He had a buddy on the Board of Big Shots within GM, until he resigned recently. Kerkorian was also interested in gaining a spot on that board, so he could have more leverage in the direction GM headed. That direction, in his mind, was "make more money". Now they're both gone.

 

[a6m5]

He had a buddy on the Board of Big Shots within GM, until he resigned recently. Kerkorian was also interested in gaining a spot on that board, so he could have more leverage in the direction GM headed. That direction, in his mind, was "make more money". Now they're both gone.

Yeah, I think the man's name was York, and he was on the board of directors according to the article I read. I wasn't aware that Kerkorian also wanted to be on the board.

 

[niky]

I completely agree with YSSMAN on this one, he can definitely blow it out his rear-end.

Kerkorian fancied himself a big-shot investor/business manager... one who could heroically turn around GM, resurrect a dying giant, and turn a tidy profit, at that.

His ideas? Generate buzz on one end, and cut costs on the other. He's the one who dearly wanted the Nissan Renault deal... not for any transfer of technology or sharing of capacity, but merely for Renault's poster boy, Carlos Ghosn. Ghosn's hack-and-slash approach may have helped increase Nissan's margins, and they might actually do something for an over-burdened GM, but Wagoner's team is already doing something similar but less dramatic.

Probably, Kerkorian actually wanted Wagoner and his buddies slashed... would've raised his stock immensely... and he could've left in the muddle it would have caused, all to a tidy profit.

What was it someone once said about the problems of the Big 2.5? That everyone and their brother knows how a car company should be run, but once you get there, the reality is much more complicated. Kerkorian found that out firsthand, the hard way.

 

[exigeracer]

we don't need a Frenchman to make it worse.

He's Brazilian with Lebanese parents.

it allows for GM to get around the penny-pinching. We've already seen them abandoning those practices with the Aura and new GMT960 models

I think you mis-phrased that. The Aura is the definition of penny pinching (rebadge WHAT!).

 

[Bram Turismo]

Good. GM could use some bad news for once. Oh, wait....

👍

 

[Tornado]

Simply put, Wagoner and Lutz have set the direction of where the company was going, and thus far we are beginning to see the fruits of their labor. Having Goshn on-board would have cause problems with his "cut costs, see if quality increases" plan would have worked out. Things were bad enough already, we don't need a Frenchman to make it worse.

Er, no. Wagoner has done nothing in his tenure at GM but throw the stock prices down the toilet. Its all well and good that things like the Solstice came out and he brought Lutz on board. During his tenure, however, we also got the Nissan Skyline minivans, the Saturn Ion, the Saturn L-Series, the Cadillac DTS/DeVille, the Pontiac Aztek, the Hummer H3, the Chevrolet Cobalt; not to mention the death of the only not-ass backwards brand GM had; the partial purchase and later put-option fiasco with FIAT; the purchase of Hummer; killing off the Camaro giving the Mustang free reign; etc. In that same time-frame (1998-now), Ghosn has not only completely turned around Renault but also Nissan, both of whom were far closer to financial ruin than GM could have believed itself to ever be in 1998 (which is when GM had tons of money, if I recall correctly), not to mention closer to financial ruin than GM is now.
Wagoner has done nothing good for GM until he was threatened to be fired last year for ruining the company, and the only problem the Renault-GM alliance would have caused was the fact that it came 2 years too late to do Renault or GM any good.

it allows for GM to get around the penny-pinching. We've already seen them abandoning those practices with the Aura and new GMT960 models

Um...no. The Aura was good in that it had the potential to be great and not be saddled down with needless penny-pinching because it wasn't designed to be. Automobile got one and found that it was still cheapened up considerably from its European counterpart, suffering from the same cheap plastic that migrated from the outside of the Saturns to the interior over the past decade. Its layout is better as it shows attempts at good design and ergonomics, but the materials are just as bad.

 

[YSSMAN]

I have to ask; Those of you who criticize the Aura, have you actually been in one? Touched the materials? Pressed the buttons?

By comparison to the brand-new Camry our friend has, I'd dare to say that the Saturn is indeed of similar quality, and overall feels more "solid" by comparison to the Japanese model. Strange, I know, coming from an American company after all...