Live data from Hacker News

99-year old trucking company Yellow shuts down, putting 30k out of work

cnn.com

11–20 of 143 posts

Re: 99-year old trucking company Yellow shuts down, putting 30k out of work

#11
> The company received a $700 million loan from the federal government in 2020, a loan that resulted in taxpayers holding 30% of its outstanding stock. And the company still owed the Treasury department more than $700 million according to its most recently quarterly report, nearly half of the long-term debt on its books.

Let's see what people who routinely rant about government bailouts have to say about this. I predict silence, because the dollars went to the right kind of people.

Re: 99-year old trucking company Yellow shuts down, putting 30k out of work

#12
The company was an unmitigated shitshow for a long time, and didn't perform its basic duties as a shipper. I've had LTL shipments lost for weeks at a time with nothing but a shrug and an "It'll (maybe) get there when it gets there".

So it doesn't surprise me at all that they couldn't reach an agreement with their labor.

Re: 99-year old trucking company Yellow shuts down, putting 30k out of work

#13

So 30000 people lose their job and the US taxpayer is out more than $700 million in loan guarantees. The only question remaining is how much money do the owners of the company walk away with?

They walk away with the profit because that's how this country works. Business owners have little to no risk when the company gets large enough. Edit: YELLOW is publicly traded and is going into bankruptcy. They posted positive earnings and their CEO got his bonuses last year. I'll let you all guess whether their leadership team gets their full comp for 2023 or not, while all the employees are told to pound sand.

They walk away with $0 in equity.

Re: 99-year old trucking company Yellow shuts down, putting 30k out of work

#14

I hope there will be a HBR or some other case study done on Yellow, because the interplay between bad loans + union demands + poor management seems like something US businesses need to be more prepared for.

From the sounds of it, its mostly the bad loans + poor management part that killed Yellow. Management of the company have been asleep at the wheel for some time now, union demands are not likely the precipitating factor here.

EDIT: All I'm pointing out here is that I don't think this can land squarely on union demands, which is what I think some of the press are making it out to be. The actual financial mismanagement of the company precedes anything the union was asking for (which in part, was for Yellow to live up to their previously agreed obligations)

Re: 99-year old trucking company Yellow shuts down, putting 30k out of work

#16

So 30000 people lose their job and the US taxpayer is out more than $700 million in loan guarantees. The only question remaining is how much money do the owners of the company walk away with?

Not defending how our stuff is set up, but it would be interesting to know how much taxes Yellow paid over it's lifetime. Excluding taxes paid by employees.

courtesy note, but the apostrophe in it's will usually expand to "it is".

Re: 99-year old trucking company Yellow shuts down, putting 30k out of work

#17

So 30000 people lose their job and the US taxpayer is out more than $700 million in loan guarantees. The only question remaining is how much money do the owners of the company walk away with?

The owner’s equity would be wiped out to zero. And 29.6% of the company is owned by the USA as part of that Covid era loan.

The real story here is the non union shops eating Yellow and the other union shops lunch. Government loans just kept it alive to die a slower death.

Re: 99-year old trucking company Yellow shuts down, putting 30k out of work

#18
Yellow is a publicly traded company. Their stock is up on the news of the shutdown, which should give you an idea of how broken the situation was: https://www.google.com/finance/quote/YELL:NASDAQ

US Taxpayers own 30% of the outstanding stock in exchange for a $700 million pandemic loan in 2020.

Re: 99-year old trucking company Yellow shuts down, putting 30k out of work

#19
post #11

> The company received a $700 million loan from the federal government in 2020, a loan that resulted in taxpayers holding 30% of its outstanding stock. And the company still owed the Treasury department more than $700 million according to its most recently quarterly report, nearly half of the long-term debt on its books. Let's see what people who routinely rant about government bailouts have to say about this. I pred…

> taxpayers holding 30% of its outstanding stock.

It's always amusing that they frame this as the lowly taxpayer holding stock in a company after the government bails a company out. I've never received the stock certificates, and I certainly don't see any dividends or have the ability to sell my commensurate portion of the stock holdings. The taxpayer pays for the bailouts but does not see any benefit for doing so.

Re: 99-year old trucking company Yellow shuts down, putting 30k out of work

#20

So 30000 people lose their job and the US taxpayer is out more than $700 million in loan guarantees. The only question remaining is how much money do the owners of the company walk away with?

Yellow is a publicly-traded company. Shareholders are wiped out…such is the risk of investing

The stock is actually up today: https://www.google.com/finance/quote/YELL:NASDAQ

That's how broken their financial situation was. Shutting down might allow the shareholders to collect something. Maybe.

Note that US Taxpayers are effective owners of about 1/3 of the company due to past loans.

Post reply on HN