It really is not a surprise that the US government will buy GM if it goes into bankruptcy. It owns it for all intents and purposes now. Is it possible, though, that that Obama may have learned his lesson regarding steamrolling Chrysler’s senior creditors? Let’s hope so because the entire episode was ugly and unbecoming an American president, not to mention it could put union companies in quite a pickle trying to get investors to come calling in the future:
General Motors Corp’s (GM.N) plan for a bankruptcy filing involves a quick sale of the company’s healthy assets to a new company initially owned by the U.S. government, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
The source, who would not be named because he was not cleared to speak with the media, did not specify a purchase price. The new company is expected to honor the claims of secured lenders, possibly in full, according to the source.
The remaining assets of GM would stay in bankruptcy protection to satisfy other outstanding claims.
But Obama is not going to back away from handing over the new GM to the unions as he did with Chrysler:
The government’s plans include giving stakes in the new company to GM’s union and bondholders, although the ownership structure of the company is still being negotiated, said the source who is familiar with the company’s plans.
GM has until June 1st to negotiate with its creditors to reduce its debt and restructure. If GM and senior creditors can’t come to an agreement, then GM will go into bankruptcy as Chrysler did and will officially become Government/UAW Motors.
Update: Others are blogging about our new Government Motors.
Hey, remember that bullcrap about how if we forked over billions in tax dollars to bail out the auto companies, we’d not only get our money back, we’d actually make a profit?
Yeah. Never mind.
For a guy who supposedly “can’t wait” to stop being an auto tycoon, President Obama is getting even deeper into GM
