I believe the Penske bid was actually to buy the Saturn brand from GM, not Chrysler. Could be wrong, but buying a company the size of GM at the time of the bailout would still have been a very difficult proposition.
> I believe the Penske bid was actually to buy the Saturn brand from GM,
Okay.
> buying a company the size of GM at the time of the bailout would still have been a very difficult proposition.
As you point out above, GM could have been sold in parts. (Some of the brands and models are independent of the rest.)
Basically it would have been a no-reserve auction with the money going to the bondholders. (They'd have taken a loss, but wouldn't have lost everything.) The winning bid is based on what folks are willing to pay, not what someone thinks GM is worth, book value, etc.
There's actually a lot of money available for such deals. Yes, 10s of billions and hundreds for "special" deals.
Okay.
> buying a company the size of GM at the time of the bailout would still have been a very difficult proposition.
As you point out above, GM could have been sold in parts. (Some of the brands and models are independent of the rest.)
Basically it would have been a no-reserve auction with the money going to the bondholders. (They'd have taken a loss, but wouldn't have lost everything.) The winning bid is based on what folks are willing to pay, not what someone thinks GM is worth, book value, etc.
There's actually a lot of money available for such deals. Yes, 10s of billions and hundreds for "special" deals.