Boeing Asks Washington for Help Critics Say It Doesn’t Deserve
A company that spent $40 billion on stock buybacks wants to spin the bailout wheel—and many others want a turn, too.
With stock markets cratering and the world’s airlines tumbling into their deepest crisis ever amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, Boeing Co. got right to the point last week: The U.S. aerospace industry would need a $60 billion bailout. It was quite a comedown for a plane maker used to calling the shots as one-half of a lucrative duopoly with Europe’s Airbus SE. Little more than a year ago, Boeing was the most valuable U.S. industrial company, with a market capitalization of about $249 billion. By March 24 about $175 billion of that had been wiped out, with Boeing ranking last in stock returns on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
That stunning loss in value notwithstanding, not all at Boeing were happy about its appeal to Washington. On March 16 board member Nikki Haley resigned in protest over the move. “I cannot support a move to lean on the federal government for a stimulus or bailout that prioritizes our company over others and relies on taxpayers to guarantee our financial position,” said Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Trump and a potential White House contender in 2024.