“"That's part of why is was all so surreal. There were some fairly tense talks going on, he was tearing up part of his legacy, paying two billion dollars, and his main concern seemed to be about watching a college basketball game". An observer about GM boss Rick Wagoner about the latter's concern with being able to watch watch his alma mater, Duke, play a game against Maryland over Valentine's Day weekend in 2005 as GM was in meetings negotiating whether it would buy Fiat, but ended up paying Fiat $2 billion in order to NOT exercise the right to buy the company. Fiat was losing so much money that GM judged that it was better o pay $2 billion to end it's obligation to buy Fiat, though that obligation would probably not have stood up in court.”
