Word: maytag
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...Newton, Iowa, Maytag's home since 1893, news that the troubled appliance maker would be sold has stirred up a host of emotions. "It's a fear of the unknown, and there's plenty of unknowns around here these days," says resident Jim McCleary. Maytag is weighing bids from Whirlpool and a private-equity firm, Ripplewood Holdings. Meanwhile, many of the 2,800 Maytag employees in Newton--18% of the population--are worried that they will lose their jobs. Others are sad to watch the Maytag legacy go on the block. Mary Ergenbright's father was a Maytag clerk...
...here are shocked. Maytag's profits have been shrinking for three years, and the company posted a $9 million loss last year. "I just had a gut feeling that at some point my time would come up," says Terry Pickett, who spent 17 years at Maytag as a tooling designer. Before he was laid off in April 2004, he had begun to look elsewhere for his future; he will finish his degree in civil engineering next spring. The town has been preparing as well. Since 2002, Newton has poured $130 million into parks, a 40,000-seat racetrack and small...
...unexpected level of support in the Senate earlier this year?now appears to be going nowhere. Also easing anti-Chinese sentiment in the U.S. were setbacks last week to two attempted acquisitions of U.S. firms by Chinese companies. Mainland appliance maker Haier dropped its $1.28 billion offer for Maytag, and a politically controversial $18.5 billion bid by China National Offshore Oil Corp. to buy U.S. oil giant Unocal has run into stiff headwinds after Unocal's board voted to stick with an improved offer from American company Chevron. Revaluing the yuan "buys the Chinese significant political capital," says Hong Kong...
...firm is seeking to borrow about $16 billion. He asked whether a partner might be brought in to absorb some of the risk. (This was something Haier, a large Chinese appliance company, did, by turning to a U.S. private-equity firm as its partner in making a bid for Maytag last month...
...Chinese company's "it's just business" approach won't mute the deal's critics in Washington. To them, a takeover of Maytag is one thing--"We don't go to war over washing machines," said Republican Congressman Richard Pombo of California--but energy is a different story. With the Chinese government subsidizing the deal--CNOOC's parent company, wholly owned by the state, will give it an $8.5 billion, 30-year loan at just 3.5% interest--cries of predatory financing are inevitable. So too are complaints (accurate enough) that there is little chance a Western oil major could...