Merger talks between General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC may intensify this week following last night's win by Barack Obama, according to reports. Combining the companies would require $10 to $12 billion in additional cash to mesh operations, said Citigroup's Itay Michaeli said in a note to investors on October 20th. And Chrysler and GM don't expect to make significant progress on government aid until after the U.S. election, sources tell Bloomberg.
"A combination of these two companies could, in the long run, save them quite a bit of money," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Robert Schulz.
"However, it's going to take a lot of liquidity in the short run, and we don't see it as a panacea to their problems," added Schulz. "It certainly doesn't fix the economic outlook."
Government loan guarantees might help stabilize the companies, said President-elect Barack Obama in an interview last week on NBC's Nightly News With Brian Williams.
Obama said in the interview he would meet with the chiefs of GM, Chrysler, Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers union to develop a plan for an industry overhaul should he win the election.
With that now a reality, the GM-Chrysler merger could see a new ray of hope with the help of government loans. And a healthier auto industry, amid massive declines, would bode well for Sirius XM Radio Inc.
Obama has stated in the past that the auto industries woes would be a priority if he were to be elected. This bodes well for Sirius/XM; provided that the company doesn't self destruct in the near future. After what the Bush administration has done to this company (remember that merger delay thing under Bushs watch?), the future can only look brighter after that dip shit leaves office!
Mel needs to start making some intelligent decisions, and he needs to start listening to the subscribers opinions and advice. Doing things his way has, so far, resulted in killing the morale of subscribers and shareholders. Obama's victory could be just the tonic that satellite radio needs to get over the hump. If only Mel and co. would stop bungling things with such horrible mismanagement!
Speaking of mismanagement Steve, why do the taxpayers have to bailout the auto industry for their poor decisions? They need to get their respective houses in order instead of asking us for a handout that may lead to the same issues we're experiencing with AIG and others.
You mean, the issues that resulted in us bailing out the banks -- those folks whose sub-prime profiteering essentially caused a meltdown of the world financial system? In contrast to the auto companies, who are paying retirement and health benefits to huge numbers of people, both current workers and retirees?
Yep, let's bail out the billionaires; let the average Joe sink.
bk2,
Who said anything about a bailout? Did you ever hear of this thing called a loan? Something that you agree to pay back? I agree that the auto industry has made horrible decisions, but if our government can spend $8,000,000,000 a month on a senseless war, then I don't see why they can't throw a bone to the car companies. I want satellite radio to survive; it ain't going to unless the auto industry get taken off of life support - and it needs to happen soon.
Chrysler has NOTHING to offer GM, there is no value for GM in this "merger" either, though this "merger" is a "merger" not a Melvin Alan "Mel" Karmazin "merge" MONOPOLY scheme. Either way when it comes to satradio NOTHING is going to save SiriusXM from Melvin Alan "Mel" Karmazin's greed and arrogance.
GM should be smart and cut off the relationship with SiriusXM and give the consumers what they want, the future of Radio HD RADIO.