General Motors Corp and billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian have failed to reach an agreement on Kerkorian's request to gain a seat on the automaker's board for his aide Jerome York, the automaker and Kerkorian said in a joint statement on Friday.
"Although the parties have had constructive discussions, they have not been able to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement ... at this time," GM and Kerkorian's private equity firm, Tracinda Corp, said in a joint statement.
GM and Tracinda said they expect to continue discussing the matter.
GM's spokeswoman Toni Simonetti wouldn't comment on Friday on why GM and Kerkorian failed to reach an agreement.
David Healy, an analyst with Burnham Securities, said GM and Kerkorian may have disagreed on how much power York would have or how many seats Tracinda would be allowed on the board, which now has 12 members.
GM confirmed on Wednesday it was in talks with Kerkorian about a board seat. Kerkorian has been amassing GM shares this year and now has a nearly 10 percent stake in the automaker. He said in a federal filing in September that he might seek a board seat.
York is a former Chrysler Corp and IBM Corp chief financial officer. Kerkorian and York worked closely together on a failed takeover bid of Chrysler in 1995. Tracinda is based in Beverly Hills, California, and is the majority owner of casino and hotel operator MGM Mirage Inc.
Some investors had hoped York would join the board in order to speed restructuring efforts at GM, which lost nearly US$4 billion in the first nine months of the year. Last month, the company announced a plan to cut 30,000 jobs and close 12 facilities by 2008.
Robert Barry, an auto analyst with Goldman Sachs, said in a note to investors recently that while York has an established record as a cost-cutter, his presence on the board might not have much effect. Barry said GM's problem isn't weak products or management but hefty, inflexible labor contracts.
Kerkorian, 88, the former owner of the MGM movie studio, has a history of wrestling with automakers to increase the value of his investment. He sued DaimlerChrysler AG after the merger of Chrysler Corp and Daimler-Benz AG, saying the deal cost him millions because it wasn't a true merger of equals.
When Kerkorian acquired 18.9 million GM shares in June, he paid US$31 apiece. On Friday, GM shares were up US$0.92 to close at US$22.92 in New York.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS