Investigators say Fed threatened bank CEO

Source: Yahoo Sports

Now what?

 

That darn Obama, corrupting the Bush administration.

barfo

 

That's right. Except for his 25 years of experience working for GM, he has no automotive industry experience whatsoever.

barfo

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aQ._YJhEj_Jo

Whitacre Vows to ‘Learn About Cars’ as GM Chairman (Update1)

June 10 (Bloomberg) -- Edward E. Whitacre Jr. built AT&T Inc. into the biggest U.S. provider of telephone service over a 43-year-career. By his own admission, he becomes chairman of General Motors Corp. knowing nothing about the auto industry.

The 6-foot-4-inch Texan nicknamed “Big Ed” said steering the nation’s largest automaker after bankruptcy is “a public service.” People who know him say he can meet GM’s need for the type of transformation he orchestrated at Dallas-based AT&T.

“I don’t know anything about cars,” Whitacre, 67, said yesterday in an interview after his appointment. “A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. I’m not that old, and I think the business principles are the same.”

Whitacre’s selection bucks more than a half-century of tradition at GM, where the only non-executives to lead the board since 1937 were interim Chairman Kent Kresa and John Smale, who held the job from 1992 through 1995. Whitacre will take the post when Detroit-based GM exits Chapter 11, perhaps by Aug. 31.

The White House said Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally’s move from planemaker Boeing Co. shows that success doesn’t hinge on automotive experience. Ford is the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy.

“What was required was somebody with savvy, big-business experience that could take a company, change its management culture, make some of those tough decisions to put it on that path toward viability,” Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters at a briefing today.

‘Good Choice’

A bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and record in shaping a “monolithic” AT&T into a diversified enterprise make Whitacre “a good choice” for GM, said Jim Hall, principal of 2953 Analytics auto-consulting firm in Birmingham, Michigan.

“He was one of the guys who helped create a new AT&T that wasn’t so dependent on land-line phone service,” said Hall, a former GM engineer. “There’s a parallel with General Motors. GM is not now about just making cars. It’s about re-creating itself as a 21st-century car company. They have to have somebody at the top that understands they have to make a new GM.”

The U.S. Treasury, which is backing GM’s restructuring with about $65 billion, reached out “some weeks ago,” Whitacre said, enticing him out of retirement to help oversee a company that has lost almost $88 billion since 2004.

Talking With Rattner

“Lots of conversations” followed with Steven Rattner, the Wall Street dealmaker running President Barack Obama’s car task force, said Whitacre, adding that Treasury’s message was: “We need your help. It’s a great company. You could be a lot of assistance to GM.”

In addition to Kresa, the automaker’s new, 13-member board will include five holdovers -- CEO Fritz Henderson and directors Philip A. Laskawy, Kathryn V. Marinello, Erroll B. Davis Jr. and E. Neville Isdell. Six others will retire, including all four who were appointed in the 1990s.

 

And FWIW, AT&T was sold for scraps during the Clinton years (dot bomb bubble burst).

The mobile business was bought by Cingular who later took on the name AT&T.

There was no turnaround there.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT&T_Mobility

AT&T Mobility LLC is the wholly owned wireless subsidiary of AT&T Inc. AT&T Mobility, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia,[2] is the second largest mobile phone company, in terms of number of subscribers, under Verizon Wireless. AT&T Mobility has approximately 78.2 million subscribers as of the first quarter 2009.

Formerly a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth, Cingular Wireless soon acquired the old AT&T Wireless; SBC later acquired the original AT&T and re-branded as "the new AT&T". Cingular became wholly-owned by the new AT&T in December 2006 as a result of AT&T's acquisition of BellSouth.

In January 2007, Cingular confirmed it would rebrand itself under the AT&T moniker. The corporate name change occurred immediately, although, for regulatory and brand-awareness reasons, both brands were used in the wireless unit's signage and advertising during a transition period.[3] The transition concluded in late June, just prior to the rollout of the Apple iPhone.

 

It's pretty typical for board members to not come from the industry.

Whether that's a good thing or not can certainly be debated - but it isn't something Obama invented. GM's old board had 12 people, apparently none of them from the auto industry except the GM CEO.

barfo

 

This is the chairman, not a regular board member, and he's being touted as the guy who'll turn GM around.

 

He's not the executive chairman, so he's not going to be the guy who turns GM around, unless he hires the guy who turns GM around. There isn't much difference between chairman and board member in most cases.

barfo

 

What's the point of making him Chairman? His specialty is acquisitions.

And there is a huge difference between chairman and a regular board member; the same difference between speaker of the house and representative from Wyoming. They both control the agenda (what gets brought up for votes).

Ironic that Obama picks a guy who got a $150M+ severance package for the job while talking about excessive executive compensation all the time.

 

Someone has to do it. And a background in acquisitions isn't entirely inappropriate.

No, that's a completely bogus comparison. There's a big difference between being speaker of the House (435 members) and chairman of a corporate board (of 13 members in this case). A much closer comparison would be the chief justice of the supreme court vs. a regular member of the supreme court.

I don't think that's a very accurate portrait. That might happen if the board is completely at odds with each other, I suppose, but most boards don't actually do much besides (a) provide advice to the CEO; (b) rubber stamp his decisions; and (c) fire him when it turns out they shouldn't have rubber stamped one of his decisions.

barfo