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

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

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…..

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).