Potential Buyer For Westinghouse Has Pittsburgh Roots
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Having filed for Chapter 11 protection in order to shed billions of dollars of debt and restructure its company, Westinghouse Electric becomes a prime target for purchase, bankruptcy experts tell KDKA money editor Jon Delano
"We want to keep Westinghouse as Westinghouse. Keep it strong."
Those are the words of the disguised voice of a prospective Pittsburgh buyer who is not ready yet to go public.
Delano: "Can you go public, and tell us who you are? What's going on with that?"
Potential Buyer: "I think in the next few weeks that will be available, yes."
The would-be buyers come from Pittsburgh, New York, and Washington with solid multi-billion dollar all-American financing, they say.
"This is a hundred percent U.S. money," says the potential buyer. "We come with money to put the proper amount of money in to manage, run, and build Westinghouse and to continue Westinghouse to be the strength it hasn't been and bring it back to that and make it a sustainable growth company."
The Pittsburgh buyer says it makes no sense to keep the current management in place that ran the company into the ground.
"The very people that mismanaged this company are the very people who have the most to gain by filing bankruptcy."
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As for the employees in Pittsburgh, the potential buyer is clear.
Delano: "There's a commitment to keeping the company and the employees in Pittsburgh?"
Potential Buyer: "Yes, of course. Westinghouse is a Pittsburgh-based company, and it's going nowhere. Westinghouse is an American icon."
Now, until they go public with more details, it's admittedly hard to evaluate these potential buyers.
And the chances are they are not alone.
The bankruptcy judge and creditors will no doubt want "the highest and best" offer they can get for any purchase. That's the legal requirement.
And it's way too early to know if that will be an American company committed to Pittsburgh or somebody else.