“U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said on Tuesday it will immediately begin selling its investment in gunmaker Freedom Group in light of last week’s school shooting in Connecticut,” reuters.com reports. It’s a counter-intuitive move; firearms sales are soaring like never before, in the face of a possible assault weapons ban. Then again, they do own Bushmaster, the brand Adam Lanza used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. “Pressure mounted on Cerberus as the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) said on Monday it was reviewing its investment with the private equity firm after the Connecticut school shooting.” What’s the price of political correctness these days? “CalSTRS had invested . . .
$751.4 million with Cerberus by the end of March 2012, according to its website.” I’m sure there are other Cerberus investors who got cold feet from their firearms arm. Not to mention the fact that Steven Feinberg mixes with people who view guns as anthrax incarnate.
Question: who the hell will buy it?
The Freedom Group—a combination of top shelf firearms and ammunition brands that suffered from severe quality problems after managers inflicted “efficiencies”on its various parts—has been struggling since it’s inception. It’s gone through numerous CEOs, including Bob Nardelli, the man who drove Chrysler into the ditch (and sucked-up billions in taxpayers’ bailout bucks).
Chance are the Freedom Group will be sold off piecemeal. With so many great brands in its portfolio, they will find willing buyers.
Freedom Group includes:
- Remington
- Bushmaster
- Marlin
- H&R 1871
- Dakota Arms
- Tapco
- DPMS/Panther
- Parker
- Barnes Bullets
- Advanced Armaments (AAC)
- Para USA
…and their most recent acquisition, Tapco.