Comments on: Seattle - A fading star? http://seattlehousingbuzz.com/2008/07/seattle-a-fading-star a Seattle Real Estate Blog Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:29:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Ben http://seattlehousingbuzz.com/2008/07/seattle-a-fading-star#comment-164305 Ben Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:41:18 +0000 http://seattlehousingbuzz.com/2008/07/seattle-a-fading-star#comment-164305 The company was goner when she decided to sell the Plaza. The company was goner when she decided to sell the Plaza.

]]> By: Sue http://seattlehousingbuzz.com/2008/07/seattle-a-fading-star#comment-164300 Sue Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:21:18 +0000 http://seattlehousingbuzz.com/2008/07/seattle-a-fading-star#comment-164300 It's about the $. Safeco's stock was hovering around the $44 mark when they were threatened with the potential for a hostile takeover.....I don't think Paula wanted to loose the company on her watch but the drop in financial sector stock prices put the companies value proposition way above that price (since Safeco apparently had little or no exposure to the mortgage debacle in their portfolios yet took the stock price hit along with the industry as a whole). Do the math! If they had done a hostile it might have gone to the $50-60 range vs the $68.50 offerred. What stockholders in this market would hold out against a guarenteed gain of this magnitude? I don't think Paula Reynolds "Pillaged" anything...there were genuine tears when she announced it to the employee ranks. Who wants their legacy as a CEO to be "I lost the ship on my watch". It’s about the $. Safeco’s stock was hovering around the $44 mark when they were threatened with the potential for a hostile takeover…..I don’t think Paula wanted to loose the company on her watch but the drop in financial sector stock prices put the companies value proposition way above that price (since Safeco apparently had little or no exposure to the mortgage debacle in their portfolios yet took the stock price hit along with the industry as a whole). Do the math! If they had done a hostile it might have gone to the $50-60 range vs the $68.50 offerred. What stockholders in this market would hold out against a guarenteed gain of this magnitude? I don’t think Paula Reynolds “Pillaged” anything…there were genuine tears when she announced it to the employee ranks. Who wants their legacy as a CEO to be “I lost the ship on my watch”.

]]> By: Ben http://seattlehousingbuzz.com/2008/07/seattle-a-fading-star#comment-163972 Ben Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:04:25 +0000 http://seattlehousingbuzz.com/2008/07/seattle-a-fading-star#comment-163972 My nostalgia for Safeco diminished after the 2003 layoff round, McG's golden parachute and Paula's pillage of the company, so my "yes" vote was about money...$68 plus change per share. My nostalgia for Safeco diminished after the 2003 layoff round, McG’s golden parachute and Paula’s pillage of the company, so my “yes” vote was about money…$68 plus change per share.

]]> By: ethan http://seattlehousingbuzz.com/2008/07/seattle-a-fading-star#comment-163964 ethan Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:43:47 +0000 http://seattlehousingbuzz.com/2008/07/seattle-a-fading-star#comment-163964 can i ask why you voted for the sale? it seems antithetical to all the stereotypical "seattle" morays: small business, local options, etc. not that safeco was really part and parcel to that mentality to any large degree, but i'm curious why you think that the sale was a good idea. in other news, however, microsoft (not technically seattle, i guess, but certainly associated with us, even if the city proper doesn't collect taxes directly) is doing fine. amazon is moving into new digs far more central to the city. seattle is bearing the recession like any other major city, i think. maybe a little worse since weird kind of "mid tier" as far as cities go, so people are looking for more fertile ground in larger places, but it doesn't seem like things are dire just yet. can i ask why you voted for the sale? it seems antithetical to all the stereotypical “seattle” morays: small business, local options, etc. not that safeco was really part and parcel to that mentality to any large degree, but i’m curious why you think that the sale was a good idea.

in other news, however, microsoft (not technically seattle, i guess, but certainly associated with us, even if the city proper doesn’t collect taxes directly) is doing fine. amazon is moving into new digs far more central to the city.

seattle is bearing the recession like any other major city, i think. maybe a little worse since weird kind of “mid tier” as far as cities go, so people are looking for more fertile ground in larger places, but it doesn’t seem like things are dire just yet.

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