Why Whirlpool bought Maytag

Why Whirlpool bought Maytag
Date	May 30, 2006
Section(s)	Opinion
Brief
To the Editor: The vote (recently) on the $70 billion tax relief bill for corporate America was generally split down party lines. The Republicans passed it in both houses. California Representative Drier (R) bragged that he was born to cut taxes. He was oh so proud. The spiel — “This tax relief was badly needed because, to keep this great economy booming, corporate America needs that extra money for research and development and to expand and to hire more people to work in that expansion, etc., etc.” Well, people of Newton, Iowa, certainly understand that Republican reasoning. We know now that Whirlpool bought Maytag to create more jobs. Whoops. I mean Whirlpool bought Maytag because they needed to add a good, hard-working workforce. Whoops. I mean they spent their hard-earned tax relief to buy up jobs and kill them (the jobs). Well, at least they spent their hard-earned tax relief on facilities. Whoops. I mean they bought the outdated Maytag facilities as leverage to get our governor to build greatly needed updated facilities. Whoops. Wrong again. Whirlpool has no use for any new facilities. Well, research and development is vital to any company; number one reason Republicans give for needed tax relief. This must be the reason Whirlpool bought Maytag. Whoops. Wrong again. Maytag‘s R and D lagged behind Whirlpool’s. No need for last century’s technology. So what did Whirlpool buy with their hard-earned tax relief windfall? Than answer is obvious. The only thing Whirlpool didn’t have was Maytag‘s market share. I’ll quit with the sarcasm and be blunt. Whirlpool didn’t acquire Maytag, they killed Maytag. Maytag could have been sold to the investment group that planned to fix mismanagement and resell Maytag as a viable company. It wasn’t because then current management would not have been able to plunder and vote themselves millions of dollars. Now, Maytag‘s market share, along with its jobs and facilities, can be buried and disappear. The only thing to reappear in Whirlpool’s pocket is Maytag‘s market share. Thank God for Republican tax relief. Whoops. More sarcasm. Stuart Allspach Baxter