Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Kerkorian Bails out of GM

It looks like the stock may be going down the toilet here soon. This is what he has just did with a little tax losses offsetting gains smokescreen attached:

Kerkorian disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday that his sale of 12 million GM shares generated a loss that would be used to offset gains elsewhere in his investment company's portfolio for tax purposes.

This is how much he is down in the stock already:

Kerkorian spent about $1.7 billion to build a 9.9 percent stake in GM this year. But he's now about $600 million in the red, counting the almost $110 million loss on the sale of the 12 million shares and the reduced value of his remaining 7.8 percent stake.

Wow, $600 million in paper losses should make even a billionaire sick to his stomach. He couldn't get his guy on their board either so he may be bailing out on the whole mess. Could a bankruptcy filing be in the cards? Even though everyone from the CEO on down has denied it?

If you are conspiracy minded then Kerkorian had heard a little something from his people in and around GM and is pulling out as fast as is prudent. Or maybe he just doesn't have faith in the guys running GM and since he can't get his people in there he is taking his loss like a man. Either way the stock will probably be in for a lot more bruising going forward.

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