GM CEO resigns at Obama's behest – Mike Allen – POLITICO.com (via Drudge)
I've been calling for Wagoner to resign for years. I wish GM's board had made this demand long ago, but the board has been packed full of cronies and failed CEO's (Compaq and Kodak). They were never going to hold Rick accountable.
Normally, I'd be pretty distressed about the President asking the head of a private company to step down. But, if you'd like to avoid that, I guess you can run your business in a way that allows you to avoid government handouts.
The king of excuses and blame is gone. Will the new CEO continue blaming everything and everybody or will he or she move forward in fixing the company? Is it fixable? Would anyone want the job?
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WSJ is reporting a majority of directors are being forced out too.
Interesting that a hard line is being taken with Wagoner/GM, but a much softer line was taken in the banking industry…Ken Lewis of BAC, for instance, is still very much with us.
Any thoughts as to the reasons for this different treatment?
Obviously the shareholders thought it was bad for the company driving the stock down 25 percent. So much for letting the shareholders vote.
I heard an analyst say the stock was down 25% because of the talk of potential bankruptcy. It’s hard to isolate a single variable of why the stock price went down.
Why doesn’t the head of the UAW have to step down, my brothers and sisters?
Regarding head of UAW stepping down. “Brother” Ron has already announced his retirement, so he is in effect stepping down.
How this will affect contract negotiations with Chrysler and GM is quite uncertain. Brother Ron has very little to lose in taking a hard line in order to preserve UAW benefits. But he may want to avoid risking his legacy and becoming the UAW official who forced GM into Chapter 11. This will be interesting to watch.
Adam Zak