UPDATE: Hedge Fund Ends Talks To Purchase Blackwater

ABC News reported late Wednesday that hedge fund giant Cerberus Capital Management has ended talks to purchase controversial security firm Blackwater USA:

After news broke this morning on the Blotter on ABCNews.com of the ongoing talks between the investment giant Cerberus and the controversial security firm Blackwater, the talks have now ceased, and there will be no deal.

Late today a spokesperson for Cerberus told ABCNews.com that they have decided not to pursue a transaction with Blackwater. The spokesperson declined to reveal the reasoning behind the decision.

Keep reading.

Earlier Wednesday ABC News reported that a deal was in the works:

The hedge fund giant that owns a controlling stake in Chrysler is in negotiations to buy the controversial security firm Blackwater USA, which has millions of dollars in U.S. government contracts in Iraq, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Cerberus Capital Management could invest $200 million for a stake in Blackwater, said a source close to the negotiations. Other sources said auditors from Cerberus had been examining Blackwater's books since the beginning of the year.

A source close to the negotiations says there is no deal yet, but there might be one in the future and that negotiations about a possible investment into Blackwater are ongoing.

Comments

[cultkicker]

11:09 PM on 04/30/2008

If I'm not mistaken, the prez of Blackwater married Bush's neice. No joke... can't remember names now, but if you Google this you'll find it to be true. Blackwater is in a truly incestuous relationship with Bushco and his cabal of neocon nazis.

[TheSecularist]

10:15 PM on 04/30/2008

Why would a hedge fund want to buy Blackwater whose "connections" are likely to end when GW leaves office. Hopefully, Obama will clean house when he gets to the white house.

[bikerdude]

11:22 PM on 04/30/2008

They were probably listening to McCain the insane talking about a 100 year war.

[luckyoldson]

06:40 PM on 04/30/2008

If there was any doubt that the Iraqi fiasco is based on pure, unadulterated greed...a hedge fund looking into purchasing the primary mercenary corporation we employ to navigate the supposed "security" measures should pretty much tell the world exactly what America has become.

Absolutely disgusting.

[WorkingClass]

11:37 PM on 04/30/2008

For a hedge fund to acquire a private army would be a milestone on the road to corporate sovereignty. Human beings need to defend the sovereignty of Nations. Nations at their very worst are less oppressive than corporations. And with Nations there is always the hope of reform.

[Chavez08]

05:44 PM on 04/30/2008

Can we acquire weapons, training and start *our own* "security company"?

It's the "Free Market", right???

[WIpatriot]

11:58 AM on 05/01/2008

Might need a state or federal license, have some pull with some insiders, etc.

[VivianDW]

05:02 PM on 04/30/2008

Ancient Roman history repeated here in The United States? General Julius Caesar had his own Roman army which The Roman Senate ordered to stay out of the City of Rome. However, Caesar's army crossed the Rubicon River with him and entered Rome as conquering heroes. Because the senators were corrupt aristocrats who pillaged the treasury for the good of the aristocrats, Caesar became a dictator and ended the Republic with the force of his "private" army.
after the senators killed Caesar, Rome plunged into civil war which ended with the first Roman Emperor, Octavian Caesar Augustus. This ancient experiment with limited democracy -----dead!!

Hundreds of books have explained the rise and fall of Rome. This miniscule comparison only hints at the decades of deception, violence, torture, control of religion, war, ineptness of insane successors to the throne, entertainment of the masses with vicious "games" in massive arenas where the poor were fed and kept under control.

And more--------MUCH MORE!!

I know that Blackwater and other huge "security" armed forces, are great threats to our Constitution. The connections to Blackwater and Cerberus Capital Management include Halliburton, Rumsfeld, Snow, Quayle, and whom else?? They reek of corruption and lawlessness.

Our Senators must act to investigate and ELIMINATE this ENORMOUS conspiracy. The knowledge that private armies are hired by George Bush's Cabinet, should terrify our leaders the way it horrifies our historians.

Powerful private armies should not be allowed to exist in this country.

[VisiteDeVoltaire]

06:24 PM on 04/30/2008

Machiavelli, the acknowledged master in this arena, advised against the use of mercenaries. He said they were overly expensive, disloyal and difficult to control. He said they should be used only as a last resort.

The worst part for us is that if martial law is ever imposed in the US, it will be companies such as Blackwater which will be mobilized against us. They are faster to assemble and transport than a traditional army and will also not balk at committing acts that a soldier loyal to the Constitution would not do. Shooting unarmed civilians comes to mind as they have done so in Iraq.

[LibRS]

05:26 PM on 05/01/2008

Damn son. Take a chill pill. Better take a reality pill while you are at it.

[BushBites]

04:38 PM on 04/30/2008

If Hillary or McCrazy get in, business should be good.

[luckyoldson]

06:46 PM on 04/30/2008

Right.

As if business could possibly be any better than little GW has made it up to now.

[JRandomPoster]

03:06 PM on 04/30/2008

I wonder how long it will be until the Corporations just start retaining their own private armies directly.

[Chavez08]

03:14 PM on 04/30/2008

Let's see .....what time is now?....

About 120 years ago......

[awcbuddy8]

04:02 PM on 04/30/2008

Well, actually, the British East India Trading Company was an army of to itself and drove the Potrugeuse out of India. So if you are referring to some American company, then well, you're really wrong.

[dadw5boys]

03:44 PM on 04/30/2008

like the Banana Companies in South Americans and Central America have had for years to kill union organizers?????

[Chavez08]

05:01 PM on 04/30/2008

Uribe is one of the last of the Neoliberal murderers and he's feeling the heat now, so is the U.S. govt. for blessing him for doing it.

Bush will be forced to stop subsidizing his paramilitary killers very soon.

I wonder how the AEI, RAND would feel if a president from the Left came in and sponsored assassinations of right-wing neoliberals like Bush does against unarmed labor organizers.

[gcallaghan]

02:55 PM on 04/30/2008

Prince is selling now because he knows the next occupant of the white house will throw him out of business. These hedge fund managers know that his company loses value by the hour. A big sticking point should be future liabilites. In the end he'll practically pay them to take it all off his hands.

[mnash]

02:51 PM on 04/30/2008

Doesn't Mark Penn have something to do with Blackwater? I think I read somewhere his company or the company he works for have dealings with Blackwater. Also doesn't Chelsea Clinton work for a "hedge fund?"

[peggio]

03:08 PM on 04/30/2008

He does. She does. I wonder which hedge fund. Will the media look into it? Not unless it happens here.

[bikerdude]

05:41 PM on 04/30/2008

Jeez, working FOR a hedge fund is like working for a bank....or the government...uh never mind.

[kappa08]

02:50 PM on 04/30/2008

It makes sense...Because of a legitimate class issue in this country that is only getting worse.
We are heading towards a Mexico style protection force. The mob will eventually start climbing those gated communities and taking their shit. I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner. When you have f***ers like Cheney and Bush that scoff at the citizens that drive this country and basically keep taking, with that "let them eat cake" smirk. It will eventually have a backlash. History is our greatest measure of what is to come.
All you people that want gun control. Think twice...

[Chavez08]

03:08 PM on 04/30/2008

Unfortunately, I disagree on BOTH sides of the arms issue.

A) (Directed at anti-gun group) If someone really wants to kill, they don't need a gun. Your 95 year old grand-dad driving to Bingo in his 4000LB Buick is much more dangerous than a holstered weapon.
B) (Directed at NRA) The intent of "well armed militias" was not so beer buddies could hang AKs on the living room wall and brag to their friends.

If we really wanted to live by the 2nd amendment, - each (indpependant) state would possess and operate **their own** fighter jets, SAMs, rocket launchers, tanks, heat and sound weapons, drones, satellites, etc.....

This whole gun control issue is a joke - both sides. Unless we, the people, can protect ourselves against an invasion or insurrection using the aforesaid *modern* weapons, we're unarmed, period.

[awcbuddy8]

04:06 PM on 04/30/2008

They do...it's called the National Guard.

[awcbuddy8]

04:05 PM on 04/30/2008

Class wars are usually instigated by middle class liberals who want power for themselves. Yes, history is our greatest measure: the French revolution failed, the communist revolution failed, and the Mexican revolution failed. Good will always be present to combat the forces of deciet and evil.

[wndrwrthg]

04:28 PM on 04/30/2008

Getting rid of the aristocracy is never a failure. EQUALITY, LIBERTY, FRATERNITY.

[aristippe]

02:42 PM on 04/30/2008

paramilitasyndicalism

[Chavez08]

02:23 PM on 04/30/2008

Question to all of you Capitalist group-thinkers:

What do you think is going to happen when the Global Imperialist fervor wears off (or U.S. runs out of occupation cash) and these highly-trained, death-jaded, battle-hardened killing machines are unemployed and set back into society?

Take a look at what happened to the Bear when Gorbechev sold it to Western bankers - Yeltsin sat back waiting for the "market forces" to rape and pillage the USSR and the unemployed KGB became pockets of Mafia organizations and now, under Putin, they regrouped forming what is now called the FSB and since have had pretty much free reign.

What is going to happen to the CIA, FBI, NSA, mercinary subcontractors when WE collapse? (we're certainly heading that way)

What happens in a pacifist, weak society that centralizes govt. and subsidizes standing armies to do their war bidding? - Will we soon be subject to similar violent, well trained gangs while we're not even allowed to arm or train ourselves in the meantime?

Nice....

[awcbuddy8]

04:09 PM on 04/30/2008

Did gangs of soldiers take over the country after reconstruction or even WWII(there was about 16 million of them)?

What are you trying to prove?

[wndrwrthg]

04:41 PM on 04/30/2008

There were stable governments in place after the ACW and WWII. All countries that have gone through strife that have not had a stable or even a semi stable governments were subject to the whims of armed groups. This has been the pattern throughout history when governments fall.

[Chavez08]

05:22 PM on 04/30/2008

This country wasn't over-extended and bankrupt to this extent.

We are now a much more violent, apathetic, militarized, submissive and polarized society than we were after WWII and we had the promise of a re-birth fueled by Keynesianism/New Deal/Marshall Plan. We had industrialization, infrastructure, home construction - now we have NO industry. Our entire economy (that only the already rich benefit from) is based on Disaster Capitalism and Military Keynesianism and it just-so-happens that companies like Blackwater are of the few to thrive in both of these markets.

They're very existence is assurance enough that they will subsidize their own success because they can control the market forces that feed them (war business is weak, - start a war....need to privatise another city, - blow it up)

We are an empire very similar to that of the Bear and we're even closer to Rome. This country is held together by nothing more than the U.S. dollar and the entire world seems to be moving away from it while we are pushing ourselves further into debt and international isolation.

We are doing to ourselves what we did to Russia, they collapsed and the KGB ran (and still does run) the country illegally, now legally (and it's not pretty). in this new-found militarized craze, we are destined to for something very similar.

[Mike169]

04:26 PM on 04/30/2008

What happens in a pacifist, weak society that centralizes govt. and subsidizes standing armies to do their war bidding? - Will we soon be subject to similar violent, well trained gangs while we're not even allowed to arm or train ourselves in the meantime?

What are you talking about? This country being a weak pacific country?! Look around at who has contracted for the services of Blackwater and why they've done this. The United States remains the most powerful country in all of history and yet this administration more than any other has turned over its responsibilities to contractors. It wasn't a "pacifist weak society" but a calculating irresponsible one which has done this.

[ProfessorDuh]

02:22 PM on 04/30/2008

Private armies of murderous thugs are the next hot commodity!

[awcbuddy8]

04:10 PM on 04/30/2008

Security guards for people rebuilding Iraq=the devil. It's scientific fact. F**k you former US soldiers who protected the liberty of people such as Duh and then took a good job to support your family. You die and you go to hell! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

[wndrwrthg]

04:47 PM on 04/30/2008

You do realize the mercenary armies operating in Iraq are composed of more than former US military? Oh, and it's time for your medication.

[Chavez08]

05:37 PM on 04/30/2008

"Security guards for people rebuilding Iraq"

[VictorLudorum]

01:54 PM on 04/30/2008

Stephan Feinberg reveals his ideal to why he wants to buy Blackwater ,knowing Blackwater is notorious and security companies in southern hemisphere must not be over important and louder than political governments....i respect the HEDGE FUND is going to lead but i hope that the fund will not compete irrelevantly with The Soveriegn Wealth Funds that will be busy in southern hemisphere too ..Both the funds should watch edges from getting bruised..Black Water is notorious ................how is the company going to help revenue or otherwise the Funds dont believe in Globalisation..And Globalisation wouyld prefer in more tranquility than raising violence and raising security for few ...................................The funds go astray the [power broker advantage ] the funds get will immediately fail ,but Globalisation cannot be hijacked ...............................................

[fairandjust]

01:39 PM on 04/30/2008

Hmmmm. "[Co-founder of Cerberus] Stephen Feinberg is a major Republican donor. Cerberus also owns a company called IAP World Services, whose president came from Kellogg, Brown & Root, which was spun out of Halliburton. And Donald Rumsfeld was an investor. "

OK, then Cerberus could reimburse the US Taxpayers for the monies spent by its connected warmongers in Iraq. Good deal then.