Rats deserting a sinking ship >>>>

[Ayjay]

Obviously GM's top-brass all must think the end is near.........

"Six top General Motors executives have sold all their stock and liquidated their remaining direct holdings in the struggling automaker.

The GM officials, including former Vice Chairman and product chief Bob Lutz, detailed stock sales in filings with US securities regulators during a trading window for such transactions.

The rush to sell the shares comes as the company faces its deadline to restructure or enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Both options are likely to wipe out the value of the shares to below 2 cents per unit.

The sale of the 81,360 shares cleared out all of Lutz's remaining direct holdings of GM stock, according to his filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the filings, the five other executives who sold all of their GM stock holdings were: Lutz's successor, Thomas Stephens; GM North America president Troy Clarke; chief information officer Ralph Szygenda; manufacturing chief Gary Cowger; and head of European operations Carl-Peter Forster."

Insider trading restrictions have prevented GM's senior executives from selling stock holdings for most of this year, as the automaker has scrambled to restructure.

[harb]

Who'd be buying, considering that they may soon be worthless?

[Ayjay]

Who'd be buying, considering that they may soon be worthless?

There are always those people/institutions that will buy them for peanuts, and take the punt that GM won't go belly-up by getting the government funding in time.

[Hammer]

Talk about instilling consumer confidence.

Sad! :(

[John]

Who'd be buying, considering that they may soon be worthless?

Well, if it got really cheap, there would always be a book value. The land and factories would always be sellable.

That being said, it sadly looks like the company is dead.

[Ayjay]

That being said, it sadly looks like the company is dead.

They are not dead - they would enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and emerge much smaller/leaner and with US Govt funding. Many companies do the same thing and thrive later.

But certainly the giant that is GM will be no longer. They will become just a domestic manufacturer, with little (or no) worldwide operations.

[kzm40]

They are not dead - they would enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and emerge much smaller/leaner and with US Govt funding. Many companies do the same thing and thrive later.

But certainly the giant that is GM will be no longer. They will become just a domestic manufacturer, with little (or no) worldwide operations.

Lots of Silicon Vally companies have been in Chapter 11, and survived, to grow again afterwards, and indeed thrive.

[geoff malter]

There are always those people/institutions that will buy them for peanuts, and take the punt that GM won't go belly-up by getting the government funding in time.

Worked for investors buying Chrysler stock for pennies on the dollar, realizing great gains when Chrysler, under Iacoca, recovered from bankruptcy, and paid back their federal loan early

[Tom Nikolai]

They (GM) are even talking about moving out of Detroit!

And those folks are probably bailing because of who there new "boss" is. <snicker snicker>

[Snooty]

Ayjay,
Sounds like insider trading. BTW, our federal financial prison farms are rumoured to be rather comfy.

PS: The Fed buggers will try to break Ford. Gov'mnt-paid warrantys, etc. put the Blue Oval at a competitive disadvantage. An opportunity for car/truck buyers to stryke a blow for freedom, IMNTBHO.

[Ayjay]

Ayjay,
Sounds like insider trading. BTW, our federal financial prison farms are rumoured to be rather comfy.

It's not insider trading because the knowledge about the company's financial affairs and outlook are well known and in the public domain.
Besides, they were given authorisation to sell their shares now, as they couldn't have done so before without transgressing the insider-trading laws.