Chrysler to file for bankruptcy
Some lenders refuse offer to reduce debt, leading to likely bankruptcy filing. But Chrysler expected to remain in business and complete deal with Fiat.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/30/news/companies/chrysler_bankruptcy/index.htm?postversion=2009043009
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Chrysler LLC is going to file for bankruptcy, an administration official confirmed to CNN Thursday.
The filing comes after some of the company's smaller lenders refused a Treasury Department demand to reduce the amount of money the troubled automaker owed them.
Chrysler officials had no comment on the bankruptcy report. The company faces a Thursday deadline from the Treasury Department to reach deals with creditors who had loaned the company about $7 billion.
But the filing will not mean the halt of operations or liquidation for the troubled 85-year old automaker. Instead, the administration expects to use the bankruptcy process to join Chrysler with Italian automaker Fiat.
In addition, the United Auto Workers union announced late Wednesday night that its membership at Chrysler had overwhelmingly ratified a concession contract reached between the company and union leadership on Sunday night.
President Obama said during a press conference Wednesday night that he was more confident than he had been 30 days ago that Chrysler would be able to emerge from the process as a healthy, competitive company. He is set to comment on the state of the auto industry at noon on Thursday.
The administration said Wednesday evening that talks with the smaller lenders broke down when they refused to meet a deadline set by the Treasury Department to accept pennies on the dollars they had loaned the company.
"After a month of tireless negotiations, the Administration went into yesterday afternoon with the full support of Chrysler's key stakeholders, including the [United Auto Workers union] and the largest creditors. That support remains," said an administration official.
Major banks such as Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) agreed to reduce their portion of $7 billion in secured loans to a more manageable $2.25 billion, according to the administration official. But some smaller lenders, including hedge funds, refused to accept the deal.
"The agreement of all other key stakeholders ensured that no hedge fund could have a veto over Chrysler's future success," said the administration official.
"Their failure to act in either their own economic interest or the national interest does not diminish the accomplishments made by Chrysler, Fiat and its stakeholders nor will it impede the new opportunity Chrysler now has to restructure and emerge stronger going forward," the official added. 
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
