I don't know very much about how the business world works. From what I understand, I assume that Nissan and Renault can buy as much GM share as they please, and that GM can do nothing to stop it save buy the shares back themselves (with money they don't have).
Where I get confused is on the operational level. Let's say for a moment, that GM's board meets and comes out unequivocably against the alliance. Would Nissan and Renualt, with a 20% share, be able to force operational changes at GM?
It seems that even if the companies could force a change down GM's throat, they would hardly want to put themselves in such a situation. That said, does GM still have the ability to quash this merger before it gets off the ground?

 

dont forget, GM Has massive amounts of money, they have over 30 billion in cash, and over 100 billion in assets...

GM could go private any time they wanted right now... it may not be the best idea in the world, but its better then being owned by the japanese...

the renualt nissan GM deal gives really nothing to each of the companys... except more stuff for carlos to worry about...

 

They have cash in theory, but we all know that GM is barely chugging along with the obligations they have. I just cannot imagine that they'ed be able to weather an unexpected expense like this. I think any buyout would include Kerkonian's shares too, so that's more money.
The bottom line from all this is that Kerkonian is right in that GM needs to turn around quicker, if only because of the fact that they remain extremely vulnerable to sharks like him so long as they remain dangerously undervalued.

 

If anything is going to happen with this and I really doubt that anything will I suspect that Renault/Nissan will buy out Kerkorian and that would give them right at 10%. That means they may get a person into a board seat but I can't see the board allowing that. I think they can buy enough of a percentage of Kerk's share to keep whoever ends up with that part out of a board seat.

 

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!!

 

My thoughts exactly. Of course they have a say in it. It was Kerkorians idea, and Renault/Nissan has pretty much been like, "we can talk about it" and GM is like, "Err.... no."

Most people at GM wouldnt let this happen if it were a good idea, and it isnt.

 

Off topic but i don't think Nissan/Renault is Japanese-run or owned any more is it?

 

If anything is going to happen with this and I really doubt that anything will ... I don't think Renault will buy Captain Kerk's shares. They can buy them almost as easily on the open market just like Kerkorian did, but then they have the advantage of having an ally with a crapload of shares. So if Renault buys 20%, you can count on Kerkorian's 10% also voting the same way, thus giving Renault in effect 30% control. Also, Kerkorian would be counting on more upside once Ghosn has control and would likely want to keep his shares to participate in that additional profit.

For Renault to buy a large chunk of GM there would probably have to be some kind of regulatory oversight. But once cleared, there's not much GM can do except try to dissuade its shareholders from accepting the offer. Or find a white knight they might feel is a better match (perhaps the Bill & Melinda Gates fund would find GM worthy of a charitable donation?). These kinds of attempted takeovers happen all the time in the business world but are not always successful.

 

French, Nissan is owned by a French company.

 

Renault owns 44% of Nissan, so that's a controlling share by Japanese rules.

Oddly enough, Nissan owns 15% of Renault in return.

Really though, is having an engine like that DOHCer 3.5L v6 or the 4.5L in the Colorado trucks or even the Endurance 5.6L v8 in the full-sizers a bad thing? If it came to that, of course...

I mean...Honda already chips in with the 3.5L v6 in the Vue...

Ford made the Villager clone (Quest) for Nissan who stuck their drivetrain in those vans, so maybe a little sharing isn't out of the question.

 

They have alot of say actually. Infact there have been cases (one in particular) where a company sold itself through its shares where two companies were bidding on it. The higher bid did not win the company. or so Ive heard

 

I wouldn't take either Nissan's V8 over an LSx; no gain in power, no reduction in weight, no gain in packaging size, no savings in cost. Their V6 is nicer than the HFV6 however, but not by that much.

 

Nissan has a nice V6, but other than that GM builds the best V8s in the world (in under $75,000 vehicles) I wouldn't want anything to do with a Nissan V8

 

This is perhaps one of the best articles todate regarding the 'alliance'...

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...607050302/1148

 

My thoughts exactly.