What a baby. Just because you don’t get your way, it doesn’t mean you should leave. At least they gave the talks a shot — even if it was a bad idea.

This only further proves York and Kerkorian only wanted this deal to go through b/c of the financial benefits that would have gained. Now that their ‘get rich quick’ scheme has fizzled they’ve lost interest. These crooks should have never been apart of GM’s board. I feel GM may have saved themselves a great deal of grief by not entering this deal.

Chris—on the surface, I agree with you. I think that all things considered, GM is better off without either an alliance with Nissan/Renault OR such a large investment by someone who is definitely NOT a car guy. I think GM is on their way out of the hole.

slider5634: I think you hit the nail on the head here. It really does look like pouting on the part of Kerkorian/Tracinda/York.

This is strictly business. York was on the Board to promote Kerkorian’s interests. With Kerkorian’s plans up in smoke, his lackey has no mission on GM’s board.

What the hell does a billiionaire get to gain, anyway? More billions? WTF is he gonna do with all of that?

Kerkorian invested in GM. That means he put his money where his mouth is and of course he wants a return. What’s wrong with that? Nissan and Renault wanted to invest in GM too but only with GM management agreement. Its hard to understand how GM justifys asking for a premium from someone who wants to invest in the company?
There may be lots of reasons York resigned from the board but I doubt petulance is one of them.
I doubt this story is over either.

Agreed with above and I bet GM figured out what was going on and that is why they soured the deal with Renault.

As much as I dislike KK, you can’t be calling him out for pulling out from GM (at least with York and no new investment). He’s there to make money, and that’s it. GM wasn’t willing to follow a strategy he wanted followed to get the returns he envisioned when he invested (whether they fake-tried or really tried with Ghosn, you can’t give them credit as they’re not doing it, and credit is worthless as it isn’t the same as execution, which is all KK cares about).

Hate him all you want, as I do, but he isn’t wrong for doing what he’s doing. His money would be better spent elsewhere. The guy didn’t make billions being an idiot, and York didn’t do his magic at Chrysler and other companies by mistake. They do know how to make things happen with a stock, and when something gets in the way, you should get your money into something else that will give you the return you want.

Now, why do I dislike KK? He goes for his dollar at the expense of the little guy. Case in point – the DCX merger lawsuit. He wanted millions (actually, billions) from DCX for misframing the merger as a merger of equals. That would cost current shareholders some serious stock price droppage, and hence hurt them pretty badly. All for what? For a multi-billionaire to make more billions? So people can’t retire or afford their retirement because KK needs a few more billion on top of what he already has? Absurd and greedy. That’s how I see it.

Now, why did Jerry York quit? 2 reasons – KK probably ordered him to, and because his comp from KK is based on what the stock price does. Why should he sit around and not get paid when he can go elsewhere and make money (not that he really needs to since he’s loaded, too).

You dont make billions by sitting on your ass. You make it by taking risks, which this was for KK and by working hard.
I agree GM is probably better off, but you cant fault the guys for trying to make a perfectly legal business deal work their way.

KK was willing to invest in a company who in the share market isn’t even worth as much as Nissan-Renault. Agreed he is trying to make money but I believe this partnership would have given alot of positives like improving their bank rating. Now they have to sort their act out otherwise goodbye GM.

Good riddance ! GM doesn’t need the annoying distractions provided by Kirk, Jerry & Carlos. GM doesn’t need an alliance partner either. The way this whole deal was brought up, without Kirk and/or Jerry presenting it to the GM Board or Management, going behind their backs w/Carlos, stunk right from the beginning.

GM needs to concentrate on their turn around plan and get back on track to being a great American company !

Let Kirk & Jerry go play in another sandbox…..

Wow, that was actually a really shrewd and commendable move on the part of GM.

I actually thought that a merger with Renault-Nissan might be a good thing for GM (although maybe not so good for Renault-Nissan), but not with Kerkorian behind it. And I was unaware that he was. (I’ve only been half-following this story.)

I think the main criticism of Kerkorian is that, while he might be making legal deals, they’re not actually in anyone’s interest but his own. I understand that when it comes to business everyone’s got their own interests to look after, but ideally one does that by looking for mutually beneficial partnerships. One invests his or her money in companies they think present real opportunities for growth, because those are the only tangible opportunities for people with a small to even moderately large amount of money to invest. However, when someone with a vast amount of wealth to throw around starts speculating on things (stocks, and perhaps more notably, currencies), it can be terribly destabilizing and detrimental. For example, if I had, let’s say, one billion dollars to invest, I can essentially force the growth of that money by using it to buy things. I could pick a stock worth a dollar, buy a billion of them, and then, by virtue of the fact that I, a fantastically wealthy “billionaire investor” was buying up this stock like there was no tomorrow, the price would rise. It might not rise by much, but even an increase of one percent would be ten million dollars. So, now that I’ve made my ten million dollars, I turn around and sell all of my stock. Now this looks bad for that company. As my buying of the stock drove the price up, so to does my selling of the stock drive the price down, because now I, an even-wealthier-than-I-was-yesterday “billionaire investor,” have no interest in this company. That’s what Kerkorian was trying to do at GM. Buy stock, create the appearance of change, thusly artificially creating a valuable stock and a demand for it, then sell it while it’s high with no regard for its affect on the company. That’ll make a quick buck. Anyway, that’s a bit of an over-simplification, but I think the overall spirit remains the same.

/no

Billiionaires have destabilized third world countries with effects that lasts decades purely for their personal gains. There’s never enough $ for them though if I’m in their position, it’s all business.

How about a history lesson Veda. Why dont you enlighten us on some of those Billionaires destabilizing third world countries.

I think Wagoner may have more on the ball than many give him credit for.

Do some research on the following: US $, South Asian countries, late 90’s. That’s all I’m gonna say since it’s non-car related.

GM is in better shape today than 2 years ago. If Kerk wants to sell his shares of GM he can. But I don’t see him making any moves.
All he said was that he would not be buying additional shares.

How about a rich guy affecting a non third world country…Ross Perot. Nuff said.