GM comes up empty

halloween GM comes up empty at vixtrade.comGM went trick-or-treating early but it looks no one answered the door. Either that, or its trick wasn’t very good. Either way, it appears to have come up empty-handed in its bid for government goodies.

The much-talked about General Motors-Chrysler merger is off the table for now. Reuters is reporting that talks hit an impasse after the Bush administration said “no” to funding for the deal, citing three people with direct knowledge of the talks.

GM had approached the Treasury in recent days about support for the merger through some $10 billion in new funding that would have included taking an ownership stake in the merged company, people familiar with the talks have said.

A Bush administration official told Reuters the administration was not negotiating direct aid for the deal.

Maybe GM will have better luck after Nov. 4. Halloween will be over but Christmas isn’t too far away.

More deals of the day:

** Britain’s second biggest bank Barclays Plc is to raise 7.3 billion pounds ($12.1 billion) from investors from Qatar and Abu Dhabi and others to allow it to avoid taking government rescue cash, it said. The bank said it is raising up to 3.5 billion pounds from Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family. That could give him a 16.3 percent stake in the bank.

** UK life insurer Friends Provident said it is abandoning the sale of wealth management unit Lombard, nine months after putting the business on the market, and reported a worse than expected drop in nine-month sales.

** Blacks Leisure Group, the British outdoor clothing retailer will consider selling its underperforming Boardwear business, made up of 57 Freespirit, Mambo, Animal and O’Neill stores, its CEO said.

 GM comes up empty at vixtrade.com  GM comes up empty at vixtrade.com  GM comes up empty at vixtrade.com

 GM comes up empty at vixtrade.com

NRG’s waiting game

crane 300x220 NRG’s waiting game at vixtrade.comA week and a half has passed since Exelon Corp made its unsolicited bid for NRG Energy Inc. But NRG still kept mum on the offer in both its third-quarter earnings pres release and its conference call with investers on Thursday morning.

“Our board is continuing to review the proposal,” Nahla Azmy, NRG’s director of investor relations said on the conference call. ”With that said, please keep in mind the purpose of today’s call is to discuss our third quarter performance and thus we will will not be making any formal remarks nor commenting on any aspects of Exelon’s proposal until an official board response has been issued.” 

So what does the lack of action mean?

“We think this might indicate that NRG is looking at a variety of alternatives beyond simply accepting the offer or remaining a stand-alone company,” Wachovia analyst Samuel Brothwell said in a research note.

Or perhaps NRG is waiting to see whether Exelon – which has suggested it would make a hostile bid if it is rebuffed by NRG – plans to back up its words with action. Your move, Exelon?

 NRG’s waiting game at vixtrade.com  NRG’s waiting game at vixtrade.com  NRG’s waiting game at vixtrade.com

 NRG’s waiting game at vixtrade.com