“Linens ‘n Things, based in New Jersey, was bought out by private equity firm Apollo Management and its affiliates in 2006 for $1.3 billion.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080411/bs_nm/linensnthings_dc_1

So, it took about two years for that failed private equity buyout to collapse. The analogies are pretty strong. Linens is the weak sister in a competitive market facing lackluster consumer demand. Cerberus did the Chrysler deal in April of last year, so they are one year into this thing now and Chrysler is in even worse shape than it was a year ago. Following the Linens schedule that would put Chrysler into chapter 11 about this time next year. Chapter 7 would be the most logical conclusion of the Chrysler saga. There would be a bidding war for the Jeep brand and the Mexican factory might be interesting to VW, but nothing else has any market value. The once mighty Chrysler minivans are now the fourth best choice on the market after Toyota, Honda and Hyundai/Kia.

Perhaps before this is over we will end up seeing a government induced combination of the 2.8 in the spirit of British Leyland. I’ve been saying for years now that the US auto industry seems to have learned nothing from the decline and fall of the UK based auto industry, and nothing has happened to change the story line yet.

Apparently, a near 40% discount on the paper made it worth something to somebody. Good luck on that…

Bruce