Comments on: When Does the Haas Fire Sale Start?

By: Tigs

Tigs — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 06:23:09 +0000

I know a few people that work at Haas Automation. I hear nothing but good things about Gene. He takes an interest in his employees and makes very generous donations to local charities as well to individuals in need.
He has a passion for high performance cars, however in 1978 he sold his Porsche to buy a NC chucker to gain a competitive advantage over machine shops with manual machines. He saw the opportunities in manufacturing rotary tables, indexers and then progressed to building machine tools.
Haas Automation has over 1,000,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space and about 1,400 employees based on 90 acres. (Check goggle earth

By: Grady

Grady — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:28:43 +0000

The smartest move might be to take Haas Automation public. Right now is probably not a great time to do it, but they’re estimating $800 million in revenue for 2008. If you figure they make 10% profit on that, the company should be worth something like $1.2 billion. Gene would probably have to have a lot of work done in the meantime to separate his various business ventures to get the company ready for an IPO, but if he would sell a 25% stake, he’d be able to take out more than enough cash to write a check for $70 million, and he’d still control the future of the company.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 02:15:44 +0000

I think it would a smart move for an existing owner to buy the team and take advantage of their engineering program with the Haas CNC company. Maybe Yates. If nothing else, you get two sponsored cars with an underrated driver (Sauter).

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:08:52 +0000

I won’t dispute anything you have written Lloyd, but I will say this: When the taxman cometh… you pay one way or another.

Somehow I doubt Haas will be cutting a check for $70 mil anytime soon. That means “an arrangement” with the IRS will be made. Whether Haas is able to retain ownership of the race team is out of his hands and squarely under the control of the IRS.

By: Lloyd Graff

Lloyd Graff — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:59:31 +0000

As someone who has personally met Gene Haas, I wouldn’t be shocked if he stayed in the racing game. Gene doesn’t have that many diverse passions in his life. He enjoys the competition of business and racing, coming up with more clever engineering ideas than his opponents and the camaraderie of his small circle of friends, which has shrunk since the indictments. He has no wife or kids. Once he gets out of jail, he will need racing to bring some fun back into his life.

Also, he was never directly responsible for his teams. There were always managers who were the true front men and they have taken an even more dominant role on the surface.

Gene is not the type to fall and disappear. His name is still on the machines he sells. He’s a fierce tough competitor and he may need to get right back to work when he gets out to earn that 70 mill. He will probably be watching his team race on cable sitting in the pen.

By: vroom

vroom — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:29:32 +0000

As the song says…”Another one bites the dust”!