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Why did Cerberus ask fired Home Depot (HD) CEO Bob Nardelli to run Chrysler?

In Monday morning news that had me scratching my groggy head, BusinessWeek reports that fired Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) CEO -- and General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) alum -- Bob Nardelli is in charge of fixing Chrysler. If someone can explain to me why this makes sense, I would like to hear it.

That's because during his tenure as CEO, Nardelli systematically destroyed Home Depot's greatest strengths -- its expert sales staff and ability to supply products that customers needed in the stores. Moreover, he has no experience in the automobile industry, which depends heavily for its success on developing cars that consumers want to buy at a price they can afford.

Nardelli is not the first manager from outside the auto industry to be parachuted in to save the day. Consider Alan Mullaly, who was passed over for CEO of Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) for another GE alum, James McNerney. Mullaly took over at Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) in September 2006.

Continue reading Why did Cerberus ask fired Home Depot (HD) CEO Bob Nardelli to run Chrysler?

Home Depot's Horrific Numbers: Sell Into Strength

Analysis provided by Eric Buscemi of Fly on the Wall:

The numbers were so bad, the stock market assumed the Fed would have to start dropping rates rapidly and both Home Depot's (HD) stock and the market rallied:

* Comp store sales were down 5.1%, a complete disaster. In October, comp store sales were down 9%.
* Same store transactions were down 4%, a very bad number.
* All the growth figures in the earnings release were from acquisitions, there was no organic growth domestically.

Earnings per share is estimated to decline from 12 to 16% for the fourth quarter. Not good! Beside the weak demand environment, Home Depot's management introduced the Orange Juice rewards program for well-performing employees. Bob Nardelli said in yesterday's call that he set aside $30 million for his employees, this compares to $13.3 billion for share repurchases. This should make the MASSES happy: NOT! That is over 400x more money for shareholders than employees who show up to work each day. This, once again, points to Nardelli's poor decision making capabilities.

Home Depot's results were simply not good. It appears the slowdown in new construction and Home Depot's decision to increase exposure to the professional market will lead to a prolonged period of weak revenue performance. Yesterday's stock price jump appears to be a suckers rally and selling into strength might be the correct strategy with this stock.

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-154.4810,309.92
NASDAQ-37.612,138.44
S&P 500-23.361,087.27

Last updated: November 27, 2009: 05:15 PM

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