http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/chinese-want-to-buy-the-b_b_144920.html
From the article:
'GM is worth less than Mattel'
A company that makes real cars, is worth less than the company that makes Hotwheels.
Berkeleyed, that's what that is.
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Nov. 20, 2008 8:05 p.m. captainzib Reader
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Nov. 20, 2008 8:36 p.m. captainzib Reader
Seriously, they screwed up dog food, tooth paste, children's toys, dairy products. Their industry has a ways to go in the quality control and standards depts.
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Nov. 20, 2008 8:59 p.m. rob_lewis Dork
You mean they don't own half the country already?
-Rob
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Nov. 20, 2008 9:04 p.m. Stuc HalfDork
Wow... I thought it couldn't get any worse
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Nov. 20, 2008 9:58 p.m. kcbhiw Reader
See also: Harbor Freight.
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Nov. 20, 2008 10:01 p.m. hotrodlarry New Reader
captainzib wrote:
A company that makes real cars, is worth less than the company that makes Hotwheels.
Berkeleyed, that's what that is.
Sad part is...everyone is still buyin Hot Wheels...even when they brought back some old models
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Nov. 20, 2008 10:41 p.m. carguy123 HalfDork
Makes sense.
Instead of a knee jerk reaction, think about what that does to the Big 3 - instant solvency and now the Chinese have to deal with the unions. Almost makes me laugh to think about that!
The Big 3 also have a huge untapped market to sell their product to.
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Nov. 20, 2008 11:17 p.m. fastEddie Dork
UFC-6,823: Communist China vs. The UAW - now that would be an awesome Pay-Per-View!!
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Nov. 20, 2008 11:48 p.m. carguy123 HalfDork
It would probably be more interesting than professional wrestling!
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Nov. 21, 2008 5:34 a.m. nickel_dime HalfDork
Maybe they'll bring back leaded automotive paint.
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Nov. 21, 2008 6:44 a.m. Osterkraut HalfDork
carguy123 wrote:
Makes sense.
Instead of a knee jerk reaction, think about what that does to the Big 3 - instant solvency and now the Chinese have to deal with the unions. Almost makes me laugh to think about that!
The Big 3 also have a huge untapped market to sell their product to.
Buick is HUGE in China. Like, seriously huge. There's some nice long-wheelbase Chinese-only Buicks that we (obviously) don't get.
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Nov. 21, 2008 6:48 a.m. stumpmj Dork
carguy123 wrote:
Makes sense.
Instead of a knee jerk reaction, think about what that does to the Big 3 - instant solvency and now the Chinese have to deal with the unions. Almost makes me laugh to think about that!
The Big 3 also have a huge untapped market to sell their product to.
Actually, GM is either #1 or #2 in China already.
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Nov. 21, 2008 10:21 a.m. aircooled Dork
Yes, American cars are considered the luxury "status" cars in China, especially Buick's.
I am a bit surprised that China is some way doesn't essentially own the automakers already. I think if they sift through the paper work a bit more they will find that they do.
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Nov. 21, 2008 11:05 a.m. Strizzo Dork
Osterkraut wrote:
Buick is HUGE in China. Like, seriously huge. There's some nice long-wheelbase Chinese-only Buicks that are actually built in Austrailia.
fixed
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Nov. 21, 2008 12:29 p.m. Type Q HalfDork
If I remember my history correctly, the last time GM was in this bad shape financially, was the 1930's. It survived then by selling a large, perhaps majority, stake in the company to DuPont. It raised enough cash to continue operations. I think that ownership continue to this day. So there is at least precident for GM selling off a large portion of itself to survive bad times.
This reminds a little like the way the way some asian and european consumer electronics companies bought American companies to use the brand names to market their own stuff. Zenith and Magnavox are the ones I think of off the top of my head.
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Nov. 22, 2008 7:55 p.m. stumpmj Dork
Type Q wrote:
If I remember my history correctly, the last time GM was in this bad shape financially, was the 1930's. It survived then by selling a large, perhaps majority, stake in the company to DuPont. It raised enough cash to continue operations. I think that ownership continue to this day. So there is at least precident for GM selling off a large portion of itself to survive bad times.
This reminds a little like the way the way some asian and european consumer electronics companies bought American companies to use the brand names to market their own stuff. Zenith and Magnavox are the ones I think of off the top of my head.
That's no good now. You could buy the entire company for the equivalent of one month's cash burn (<$2 billion). At the time, one of the Dupont family members was on the board and invested a chunk of the family fortune in the company in a new issuance of shares. At least that's what I read in Sloan's autobiography.
