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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Crime / Economy Bushmaster's Wall Street Owners Now Want to Get Rid of the Company

Posted by Eli Sanders on Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 8:42 AM

If you are looking for signs that things have changed since Newtown, here is a big sign:

The private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said on Tuesday that it would sell its investment in the gunmaker Freedom Group in response to the school shootings last week in Connecticut.

Cerberus acquired Bushmaster — the manufacturer of the rifle used by the gunman in the Newtown attacks that killed 27 people, including 20 schoolchildren — in 2006...

“It is apparent that the Sandy Hook tragedy was a watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level,” Cerberus said in a news release.

Read the whole thing. Perhaps this piece by former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer had something to do with the move?

While Cerberus, whose array of holdings is vast, is generally immune to public pressure and the opprobrium of trafficking in products that while legal may be marketed in a loathsome way, Cerberus would not be immune to pressure brought by its own investors... It is time for those of us on the “outside” to find out who those investors are, so that we can prod them to act. Every student at a university should ask the university if it is invested in Cerberus. Every member of a union should ask their pension-fund managers if they are invested. Information is the key first step. From there, action will quickly follow.

Cerberus, the New York Times notes, is "named after the three-headed dog of Greek myth that guarded the gates of Hades."

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Cerberus took this action only AFTER the California Teachers Union Pension Fund called for an official review of all of its investments with Cerberus after the fact was revealed that Cerberus held significant investments and even direct ownership in prominent gun manufacturers.

Posted by Bad Dog...Bad, Bad, Dog on December 18, 2012 at 8:55 AM

Breaking News, Company Seeks to Avoid Bad PR.

Posted by Amnt on December 18, 2012 at 8:58 AM

But I personally cleared out at least five Cerberus bases, and killed hundreds of their personnel, not to mention their leader...how can their holdings still be so vast?

Posted by Theodore Gorath on December 18, 2012 at 9:06 AM

I can't wait to see who buys a company that the entire country now sees as toxic. Someone out there with an expired man card, presumably. Maybe Dick "shoot your friends in the face" Cheney will feel sorry for Bushmaster.

Posted by originalcinner on December 18, 2012 at 9:16 AM

Gates of Hell=RNC

Posted by Pope Peabrain on December 18, 2012 at 9:18 AM

@3 THANK YOU Shapard

Posted by jns on December 18, 2012 at 9:29 AM

Bitter irony: the Cerberus founder´s father is a longtime resident of ... Newtown, CT!: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-18…

Posted by Tree of Life on December 18, 2012 at 9:32 AM

Funnily, I kinda think Bushmaster sales will go up now, mostly because of the nutters who think "Obummer's gonna take mah freedoms!" will want to snatch them up before they become illegal.

Posted by disintegrator

on December 18, 2012 at 9:39 AM

Ah yes, the crappy company that bought Chrysler from Daimler and then ran it into the ground.

Posted by monkey on December 18, 2012 at 9:54 AM

Stupid and reactive.

Freedom Group is not the sole manufacturer of assault weapons.

This is like saying "fast food is dangerous so we'll never go to McDonalds again... now where's the nearest Burger King?"

Posted by Urgutha Forka on December 18, 2012 at 10:25 AM

I'm stupid and reactive for not going to Papa John's or Domino's for pizza?

Posted by originalcinner on December 18, 2012 at 10:29 AM

Lot's of Wall Street finance types have homes in Connecticut. Wouldn't be surprised if some of them were parents of the victims.

Posted by seandr on December 18, 2012 at 10:36 AM

@2

The news is that now being a gun maker is bad PR, dumbass.

Which means the gun debate is not over, the pro-gun side did not win, and Americans do not all love guns.

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

on December 18, 2012 at 10:44 AM

@10

Remind me never to invest in your business plan.

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

on December 18, 2012 at 11:14 AM

If it really bothered them, they'd close Bushmaster or re-tool the factories for producing something else.

Posted by dwightmoodyforgetsthings

on December 18, 2012 at 11:29 AM

@12,

I would assume their children go to private schools.

Posted by keshmeshi on December 18, 2012 at 12:11 PM

@12 - not that far from the water... maybe their assistants.

Posted by Cracker Jack on December 18, 2012 at 12:45 PM

Cerberus, the New York Times notes, is "named after the three-headed dog of Greek myth that guarded the gates of Hades."

Thank you, New York Times, and also especially Eli Sanders, for this reminder; it's not at all talking down to your readers and is ever so useful for anyone who forgot the overview of Greek mythology they experienced before age 9, and then forgot the several overviews they went through in middle school, and also happened to forgot the more extensive survey they went through at least once in High School, after which they all went on to not major in liberal arts in colleges that don't have any core curriculum requirements in Classics at all.

Yes, the New York Times did it first. But that doesn't get you off the "being an asshole" hook, Eli.

Posted by robotslave on December 18, 2012 at 11:07 PM