BPUKiller

You guys capping on Google tend to forget information also ads value. Money and worth are made from pure ideas and information all the time, not just from what can be appraised and sold.

Sam

aklucsarits

It is one of the more creative ways to take a dig at Ford and GM I've seen on this board. I will award +2 points for the effort, -50 points for logic.

So Google's market cap > Ford and GM market caps combined. Therefore, Ford and GM = poop. But then Google = poop now too since they had lower than expected profits last quarter. Therefore Ford and GM = super poopy.

And if we continue with that "logic", Google's market cap is still more than double that of Honda Motor Corp. Honda announced blowout earnings just 2 days ago. But Honda's market cap is still much lower than Google's. And as we previously presuposed, Google now = poop. Therefore Honda must = worse than poop too.

Toyota Motor Corp has a market cap that is slightly higher than Google. But Google = poop now. Therefore Toyota = slightly better than poop.

So there you have it: All automakers are worth less than poop - Except for Toyota, who is worth marginally more than poop is worth.

Andrew

QUIKAG

The only thing I realize is YOU don't understand what MARKET CAPITALIZATION really means.

Nice try though, slick.

ElTianti

Not when weighed against their pension liabilities.

word2218

what does it mean other than (current share price)*(# of outstanding shares)?

The Hoth

That means GM doesn't know how or has no immediate plan to invest its cash(eg. capital spending) to generate future revenues. Oh yeah, I almost forgot due to sliding market shares, GM has to reduce its capacity.

In this case, having a large cash reserve may not be a good thing for the long haul.

steve c

LOL. Yeah -- it's that simple.

koala

It's not like GM can just wake up one day and decide to start spending this "large cash reserve"

The minute they do that, is the minute they really do go bankrupt.

GM is smarter to keep borrowing than to be using their own money (not to mention the less money you have in the bank, the less you can borrow), even though it reduces the value of their company to investors.

cthree

"ads value" nice freudian slip

You forget that Google doesn't actually own [hardly] any of the information is serves. Google is almost purely a service company. They provide a search service. They provide a news aggregation service. They provide a map viewing and navigation service. The provide (and earn almost all of their revenue from) an advertising brokerage service. Googles value is in doing those things extremely well and in their brand.

Another provider could offer all of the things Google does (many do: MSN, Yahoo, etc.) but none of them do it anywhere nearly as well. Investors are buying the Google brand and the current success it's had delivering their message to the consumer.

A manufacturing company is an entirely different ball of wax.

cdelena

Of course they have a plan for the cash.. it is needed to get them through the transition to a profitable enterprise. It does appear that GM is getting past the denial phase of years past and knows that it must be more efficient and produce good product in order to survive.. but decisions of old make it a daunting task that will require time, luck, skill, and the cash at minimum.

The union contracts make it very difficult for them to reduce production, and production costs so that will happen slowly. The years of misguided expansion have left then with a brand mix that needs revision and that will take time and cost a lot. The years of pushing product that in some areas has been inferior have left them with a legacy that will take time and money to correct.

I think that many on this board underestimate how hard it is to steer a huge corporation (GM is larger than Toyota in every respect other than profits), especially one that is hampered by so many factors that cannot be quickly changed.

For the good of the US economy and consumer I do hope that GM pulls through.. and then the market cap will be more realistic (and IMO the Google cap is not).