Hedge fund forced Cabela's merger, decimated jobs in Sidney, Nebraska

[The Legion]

This was a segment on Tucker Carlson last night that I found to be very interesting. 

 

[DaveTN]

Apparently, what he did wasn’t illegal. If it was, he should be put in prison.

The days of business owners being involved or coming from the industries they are in, are in our past. You see Presidents, CEO’s, CFO’s, etc. being brought in simply for their financial skills. They make ridiculous amounts of money that is rarely justified, and often leave businesses and family’s in ruins in their wake.

Some will say what he is doing is free enterprise and is okay; others don’t agree. I don’t know enough about business finances to know if what he is doing is legal or not. But I know it isn’t right.

 Our nations values and morals are the lowest I have seen in my lifetime. Too many Americans will sell-out their families, neighbors, and their country to save a dollar. It’s really sad.

[Capbyrd]

This is the risk you run when you put too much stock of your company out there.   If you don't want this to happen, never have an IPO or always make sure that you retain at least 51% ownership.  

[RED333]

18 hours ago, DaveTN said:

Our nations values and morals are the lowest I have seen in my lifetime. Too many Americans will sell-out their families, neighbors, and their country to save a dollar. It’s really sad.

It has been this way for a long time, and getting worse, it is truly sad.

The owner of the company I work for sold a few years ago. He always said his biggest hear ache was worrying about payroll and the family's of the people that work for him. He told me that the big worry of payroll was gone. How ever he is now out of touch with the every day things that go on. I can no longer talk to him as the owner, every thing has to go over his head. I do not know who that is and no way to find out(I have asked). The punk that is in charge of the office I work in could care less about us. Both are now more worried about a bonus than how we as people are doing.

 

[pop pop]

I put 30 years in the Post Office. You would not believe how we were treated the last 5 years(1999-2004) of my long run. My daughter still works in the Postal system.  Believe it or not, it has gotten worse. 

We had a strong union. We filed 90 grievances, and lost just one. A grievance is filed when a violation of union contract occurs. We would have won the  one we lost, but an employee lied under oath. I was the union Stewart or President for about 20 years. I personally witnessed about every kind of evil one could imagine. I sit in an arbitration, where my supervisor, and others, came in and put their hands on the Bible, and swore to tell the truth, then lied through their teeth. I tell you, cold chills came over my body when I witnessed that. I got out of that union job because I didn't want to be a party to such like.  

My supervisor came to me, after that union proceeding, and told me he was sorry he lied, but he had to keep his job. I told him that I was not really overly concerned about what the outcome of that proceeding would be, but it really bothered  me knowing he, and those men, swore before God, then did not tell the truth. IMO, those people condemned themselves to a bad outcome if they don't change their ways. Guys, that is scary to me. I have a healthy fear(respect) for God and no amount of money is worth loosing your soul over. 

A lot of people have very little morals any longer. Just watch the video posted at the first of this thread, about the forced sell off of Cabela's, and the jerk that forced that to happen, all the while destroying a whole town in Nebraska. The guy in the lumber yard was correct, the hedge fund guy(billionaire), that caused that to happen, his money is his God. Six thousand people in that town now suffers because he did that. To my way of thinking, the money he made is "ill gotten gain." In the hereafter, it will do him no good. Dave, what he did might be legal, but it was unjust.  God demands we love our brother as ourselves. This guy did not show love. 

Guys, the Bible talks about ill gotten gain and the consequences for that. When someone is forced to loose so you can prosper, that profit is ill gotten.  It's not pretty what is in store if people don't change! Not many are taught there is a just God and there are severe consequences, in our next life(realm of departed spirits), for violating Godly principals, in our lives, in this realm(realm among the living today).

I want to spend eternity with God, in the final realm. That is why I try to live, as I do today.  I am not always successful, but try. All one needs to do is pick up the Bible, and do what it says, as best as one can, then leave the rest up to Jesus/ God. 

Guys, do you realize that the U S has aborted almost 1/2 of the next generation through abortion. Truly a "Sad" state of affairs. 

RED333, sorry for the rant, but thanks for sharing your struggle with us. IMO, many in this country are sick of the way we are treaded by those over us. These unjust things will not be in store for those who love God and Jesus in the final realm. 

Edited December 5, 2019 by pop pop

[btq96r]

Singer is infamous for this kind of stuff...the Cabela's example is pretty normal across his business dealings.  The most interesting one (to me anyway) is when he got into it with Argentina over their sovereign debt he held and they defaulted on.  That involved him using another country (presumably one he had by the short and curlies) to impound an Argentinian naval training ship.

A few years ago, his investment group bought a 7% stake in the company I work for.  It didn't go the way of Cabela's (he's loses some just like any other investor), but it for sure made people nervous and drove conversations.  The stated goal was to use leverage from the stock purchase to explore “strategic options and operational opportunities to maximize shareholder value" and asked the board to consider “without limitation, a sale of the Issuer or certain of its businesses or assets ... as a means of enhancing shareholder value."  Those lines were in the disclosure filing he had to make to the SEC.  Not only is this kind of stuff perfectly legal, it's not even shameful to those who engage in it.  Shareholders are the only people who matter in the eyes of a hedge fund.  Everybody else in the organization, and the stakeholders around it are perfectly acceptable collateral damage.

We can have the kind of debate that I think needs to come, but a lot of people who are "free market types" get uncomfortable quite fast with the only practical solutions to put vulture capitalism in check.  Problem is, like anything else, you get more of the behavior you reward, and doing the right thing for the long term health of a company and taking care of employees as equally as you take care of shareholders is an outdated concept.