making me nervous 

And now while we all wait, we try to interpret the meaning of a one word cliffhanger:  Cool, as in cool it?  Cool down?  Cool story?

 

 

Domestic steelmakers Cleveland-Cliffs and Nucor are considering a bid for less than $40 a share for U.S. Steel as the Pittsburgh icon continues to fight the government over its proposed deal with Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel.

The proposed bid would keep U.S. Steel’s headquarters in Pittsburgh and divide its mills between the two domestic rivals.

 

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2025/01/13/cleveland-cliffs-nucor-us-steel-biden-trump/stories/202501130047

12 minutes ago, Mov2Ohio said:

I think Tremco may be getting added to the F500 at 499, but I share your sentiments 

 

Tremco is a subsidiary of RPM, are subsidiaries including in the F500?

35 minutes ago, Luke_S said:

 

Tremco is a subsidiary of RPM, are subsidiaries including in the F500?

nope

50 minutes ago, JohnSummit said:

And now while we all wait, we try to interpret the meaning of a one word cliffhanger:  Cool, as in cool it?  Cool down?  Cool story?

The ambiguity, lol. My fear is it's cool like this.

 

 

And Eaton HQ is technically in Dublin, so that is another F500 lost.

my guess is bad, considering some of the more unhinged parts of the press conference. 

3 hours ago, bwheats said:

They just signed a 10 year lease at 200 Public Square. This is all posturing. They moved all the AK steel employees here if memory serves correctly. US steel lost its brand appeal decades ago. While its uneasy to hear him say this, I can’t imagine him uprooting 1000s of employees in CLE.

I guess lost in all of this is that there's a difference between where a company is incorporated and where it's operational HQ is

I can't believe this is a real clip from him. To a US ally, as our government is basically handing him the company. Is he vying for a cabinet position with Trump after he "saves" US Steel?

 

4 minutes ago, PlanCleveland said:

I can't believe this is a real clip from him. To a US ally, as our government is basically handing him the company. Is he vying for a cabinet position with Trump after he "saves" US Steel?

 

 

That's just how he is. He's world renowned for flying off the handle and berating people on earnings calls.

45 minutes ago, PlanCleveland said:

I can't believe this is a real clip from him. To a US ally, as our government is basically handing him the company. Is he vying for a cabinet position with Trump after he "saves" US Steel?

 

Trump with an accent

Seems highly unlikely that a permanent solutions for a larger company would be to move their headquarters to a Tower in Pittsburgh built in 1970.

Cliffs wanted a new headquarters.  Interest rates and the cost of construction have come way down since the pandemic.

If this deal goes through, time to dust off those old headquarters plans and build a new, efficient towering building that represents the strong, American steel company that Mr. Goncalves is talking about.

Sorry, that isn't the USX tower.

As a Browns fan and Steeler hater, I thought Cleveland was finally going to be able to stick it to Pittsburgh in a more meaningful way. I was encouraged by the Nippon deal being nixed. Now, it appears Cleveland is going to lose out to Pittsburgh again. Is Ben Roethisburger behind this? I guess that new HQ will be built, but in Pittsburgh. 

 

Goncalves: a Cliffs-USS HQ would be in Pittsburgh
By Ken Prendergast / January 14, 2025

 

The headquarters of steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs could move from its namesake city to Pittsburgh if Cliffs is successful in acquiring US Steel, Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said. But a Cleveland City Hall source today said Mayor Justin Bibb spoke with Goncalves who reportedly reassured him that relocating Cliffs 1,000-plus staffpersons from Cleveland at this stage is just speculation.

 

MORE:

https://neo-trans.blog/2025/01/14/goncalves-a-cliffs-uss-hq-would-be-in-pittsburgh/

Implement the Modell Law!

Odd.  "Mayor Justin Bibb spoke with Goncalves who reportedly reassured him that relocating Cliffs 1,000-plus staff persons from Cleveland at this stage is just speculation."   

 

Speculation?   Is it considered speculation if Goncalves is making it clear that's what he wants to happen?    

Edited January 14Jan 14 by willyboy

All the peons get to stay.

 

Also total aside but it’s hilarious his is so dismissive of UPMC which makes 6X US Steel’s revenue. 

He’s saying this now… give it time. 

The city hall source who told me that Bibb reached out to Goncalves first said Gongcalves denied saying he would move the combined company's HQ to Pittsburgh. But I found his speech online and listened through the whole thing for the part where he talked about the headquarters. His comments in the article are word-for-word.

 

BTW: that dude is whacked, saying Japan is more evil than China. WTF??

6 minutes ago, willyboy said:

Odd.  "Mayor Justin Bibb spoke with Goncalves who reportedly reassured him that relocating Cliffs 1,000-plus staff persons from Cleveland at this stage is just speculation."   

 

Speculation?   Is it considered speculation if Goncalves is making it clear that's what he wants to happen?    

Trump level bluster.

-Crazy that an acquiring company would move to the acquiree's headquarters

-Crazy that a newly formed American behemoth would move into an inefficient 1970's space

-Crazy that the headquarters would move to a smaller space (I'm pretty sure there are not 1,000 employees in US Steel Tower)

Like Trump, I would suggest we follow the actions and not the bluster

4 minutes ago, Chazz Michael Michaels said:

Trump level bluster.

-Crazy that an acquiring company would move to the acquiree's headquarters

-Crazy that a newly formed American behemoth would move into an inefficient 1970's space

-Crazy that the headquarters would move to a smaller space (I'm pretty sure there are not 1,000 employees in US Steel Tower)

Like Trump, I would suggest we follow the actions and not the bluster

Many of us are Old Enough to remember BP acquiring Amoco.  

Never Fails - This is Cleveland - Just a couple of years ago we were talking about a new headquarters in Cleveland if Cliffs acquired US Steel 

 

Now if Cliffs acquires US Steel  they headquarters could be in Pittsburgh -  Only in Cleveland

Just now, KJP said:

The city hall source who told me that Bibb reached out to Goncalves first said Gongcalves denied saying he would move the combined company's HQ to Pittsburgh. But I found his speech online and listened through the whole thing for the part where he talked about the headquarters. His comments in the article are word-for-word.

 

BTW: that dude is whacked, saying Japan is more evil than China. WTF??

He is 100% whacked, haha.

 

I have to think the discussion about keeping USS in Pittsburgh is an attempt to get Shapiro and everybody in Pittsburgh totally on his side. It's pretty hard to sell the PA steelworkers on "AMERICA AMERICA, NOT JAPAN, AMERICA AMERICA" if the small print is oh and by the way we're moving the hq and all your boss's jobs to Cleveland.

 

They're presumably gonna be in 200 Public Square for ten years, given their lease. Goncalves is 66, so who knows if he's even still the CEO when the lease ends. It does seem like having the Cliffs-USS HQ in Pittsburgh creates a long-term risk of losing the jobs. If we want to avoid that, the city just needs to make a compelling case why those jobs should be located here. Like it or not, we need to do that with every company here all the time anyway.

I can't imagine the Board of Directors or Upper Management at Cliffs are happy about their CEO publicly acting like a raving lunatic. I suspect he will be long gone before this reaches a conclusion.

Cool, so now I'm opposed to Cliffs acquiring US Steel... Go Nippon! My interests in this were always purely from a Cleveland pride standpoint and now that it seems like this deal is likely to reduce Cleveland's global prestige, and possibly embarrass it. Not a fan. 

 

Not to mention shedding the name CLEVELAND Cliffs...

All this speculative hand wringing is just a bit much.  Dare I say it reflects the  old Cleveland inferiority complex shining through, something I thought was finally wanning.

 

What isn't speculative is that US Steel still wants the Nippon deal and is suing to get it done which will take a long time to resolve.  Indeed the Biden administration has extended the deadline to June for Nippon to abandon the deal which many see as an opportunity, rather than abandoning the deal, to get it done even with professed opposition by Trump, the king of flip flops.

 

5 hours ago, Clefan98 said:

Everyone needs to calm down...They aren't leaving downtown Cleveland anytime soon.

 

Steelmaker expands, extends lease by 10 years

 

https://neo-trans.blog/2024/05/15/cleveland-cliffs-commits-to-skyscraper/

Sorry to tell you these leases mean little to large companies. There are all kinds of out causes built in leases.

Edited January 14Jan 14 by 646empire

11 minutes ago, KJP said:

The city hall source who told me that Bibb reached out to Goncalves first said Gongcalves denied saying he would move the combined company's HQ to Pittsburgh. But I found his speech online and listened through the whole thing for the part where he talked about the headquarters. His comments in the article are word-for-word.

 

BTW: that dude is whacked, saying Japan is more evil than China. WTF??

Why wasn't he saying this months ago when they when first bidding for the company.  Why is so important all of sudden.  Maybe in his mind it is to curry favor with Shapiro.  The guy seems to just say things for the sake of saying them.  Reminds me another old white guy.

1 minute ago, snakebite said:

I can't imagine the Board of Directors or Upper Management at Cliffs are happy about their CEO publicly acting like a raving lunatic. I suspect he will be long gone before this reaches a conclusion.

He has always been this way.

And with all the classic hand wringing in Cleveland, as far as I can tell from media reports nobody is jumping up and down with joy in Pittsburgh.  Maybe evidence that they sort of view a certain CEO as a big nut job and not taking much of what he says seriously.  By the way, his comments about Japan are going over nationwide like a lead balloon.  Even right wingers like Mike Pompeo are pissed,

I would find it hard to believe that the Cleveland Cliffs Board is excited about the CEO dismissing the stature of the Cleveland Cliffs name, making it seem inferior to US Steel even though they'd be the one acquiring it. 

1 hour ago, Htsguy said:

Why wasn't he saying this months ago when they when first bidding for the company.  Why is so important all of sudden.  Maybe in his mind it is to curry favor with Shapiro.  The guy seems to just say things for the sake of saying them.  Reminds me another old white guy.

 

The big support for Nippon steel in pa was based on keeping white collar jobs in Pittsburgh/the headquarters in Pittsburgh. He's just acquiescing to that idea. 

 

Sidenote he's used the full force of their legal dept to go after a yahoo finance commenter so none of this behavior seems terribly surprising. Isn't his son in the company too?

Edited January 14Jan 14 by GISguy

We'll see if the board has a spine. I have my doubts he'll face any repercussions since this type of behavior is not only accepted but encouraged and probably viewed as good practice in order to gain the admiration of the incoming administration. Invoking the atomic bombings in a press conference is beyond comprehension. What a pathetic little boy.

I don't see a lock stock move of 1k employees to Pittsburgh, that would be a logistical and a PR problem. This could very much be a managed decline however with the Cleveland office becoming nothing more than a back office which gradually declines over time. No doubt billed as something like "significant operations retained as part of our ongoing commitment to Downtown Cleveland" whilst off the bat at the very least all the heavy hitters and higher earners move East.

 

Cleveland rarely comes out well from big time mergers and acquisitions so I'm somewhat nervous, especially whilst this unhinged maniac is in power.

Jeez,  what a buffoon.  Maybe a time out in a rehab center, followed by a mea culpa is in order?   Can we return back to vilifying the Haslams or others of their ilk?   I'm not ready for this type of sh%&t.    

I sounds like the Cleveland Cliffs mining related jobs stay but the HQ prestige goes to Pittsburgh (again), though hopefully his bluster will evolve.  (We wish he instead would have said a combined HQ in Cleveland has no imapct on Pittsburgh as the current US Steel CEO, COO and GC allegedly live in other states.)

 

Goncalves also said, "The name of the surviving entity will be the United States Steel Corporation. Cliffs will be part of United States Steel Corporation," he said. "The mining side will be Cleveland Cliffs, the steel side will be United States Steel."

 

At least the Greater Cleveland Partneship weighed in:

 

...nothing is set in ston,e and that's why the Greater Cleveland Partnership tells News 5 they will work to get Goncalves to rethink any decision about potentially moving out of Cleveland.

"From its founding in 1847 to its position today as the second largest steelmaker in North America, Cleveland-Cliffs has been one of our region’s leading companies and contributor to our strong business environment," said GCP CEO Baiju Shah in a statement.

"We applaud the company’s efforts to strengthen US manufacturing and national security through its continued growth as well as its many contributions to our community. With its deep roots here, we strongly believe its headquarters should remain in Cleveland, and we will work with others to make that case to the company."

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/if-cleveland-cliffs-acquires-us-steel-its-ceo-says-the-headquarters-of-the-new-company-would-be-in-pittsburgh

We are always on the short end of the stick - Somehow i wish Nippon would have acquired them

For all the bluster and preacher like shouting of the CEO, the threat of the HQ moving is pretty real I feel as outlined by other posters, with or without him. US Steel is such a karat for Cliffs that they would happily move the HQ in order to acquire it. If thats something they need to concede to get what they want, then so be it. Often with Fortune 500 level companies many of the top execs have little ties to the home market anyway, they move where their career takes them, so whats it to these people to move 130 miles away to Pittsburgh? 

 

I don't want to jump the gun and write an obituary like its a formality as this could go several ways just now, but if lets say the takeover happens this year and is approved by 2027 or something, ten years on from that I would 100% bet the headcount and average earnings of those working at 200 Public Square is significantly reduced from today. No matter how politicians or the new consolidated company sell it publicly if the merger occurs anyone who follows this stuff knows how the losing market in these deals often comes out.

 

And yet we are being asked to subidize another 500k sq feet of office space at Brook Park. Just madness.

4 hours ago, simplythis said:

Never Fails - This is Cleveland - Just a couple of years ago we were talking about a new headquarters in Cleveland if Cliffs acquired US Steel 

 

Now if Cliffs acquires US Steel  they headquarters could be in Pittsburgh -  Only in Cleveland

Enough with the pearl clutching already. Another tired, pointless “only in Cleveland” trope as if this is even close to happening soon (it’s not) and as if this doesn't happen anywhere else in America. 

5 hours ago, PlanCleveland said:

I can't believe this is a real clip from him. To a US ally, as our government is basically handing him the company. Is he vying for a cabinet position with Trump after he "saves" US Steel?

Sad that so many giant corporations are run by people I wouldn’t hire to bag my groceries 

 

8 minutes ago, jeremyck01 said:

Enough with the pearl clutching already. Another tired, pointless “only in Cleveland” trope as if this is even close to happening soon (it’s not) and as if this doesn't happen anywhere else in America. 

 

Yeah I agree. I don't even think its anyones fault at a local level as such if this happens in terms of dropping the ball or whatever. They're based in a prominent tower Downtown and the local political leaders are fighting like hell for that part of town as we know recently. If they were HQ'd in some dreary office park off Rockside Rd or whatever then I'd say what do you expect basing out of there versus the tallest building in Downtown Pittsburgh, but its a much bigger issue outwith local politics or business.

 

11 minutes ago, jeremyck01 said:

Enough with the pearl clutching already. Another tired, pointless “only in Cleveland” trope as if this is even close to happening soon (it’s not) and as if this doesn't happen anywhere else in America. 

Well considering our companion midwest city Pitt has the potential to gain 2000 downtown employees at the expense of downtown Cleveland, it shows Cleveland is not only behind the large cities in this country, it's falling behind even it's peer cities. 

I look around at comparable cities to Cleveland, like Cinci, DET, Buffalo, Milwaukee, etc. All with growing economies and population. Here, it's a vacant downtown about to become even more vacant, more impoverished and even more depopulated. I had hopes this city would finally turn it around, but when I see a major Fortune 500 company doing a lateral move to a city small than Cleveland proper, it just reinforces my belief that Cleveland continues its endless death spiral since the 1960s. 

This city cannot afford to keep losing companies, especially Fortune 500 ones. 

7 minutes ago, JB said:

This city cannot afford to keep losing companies, especially Fortune 500 ones. 

Agreed.   I'm personally sick of these guys like Haslam and Goncalves who have no ties here, coming in and making decisions based soley on their wallets.   There are many intangibles that go beyond money, but these types don't pay them any consideration.  

@AsDustinFoxWouldSay

Honestly you have the most doom and gloom takes time after time, and your post provides zero substance reflecting the actual landscape of our downtown/city versus others. It remains the largest cbd in Ohio. In comparison, my hometown of Pittsburgh has a downtown that’s in bad shape and with a BNY Mellon building that’s nearly empty. So much so the governor is stepping in to provide stimulus there. 
 

And these comments come on the heels of complete conjecture espoused from an excitable CEO. I very much appreciate KJPs reporting but there is nothing to suggest that Gonclaves is seriously thinking of moving the company. 
 

Cleveland has been on a tremendous roll with acquisitions and bringing companies here since before the pandemic. Parker Hannifin, Park Ohio, Cliffs, Sherwin Williams, list goes on and on. The data supports that downtown CLE has had one of the best pandemic recoveries so let’s please make an earnest effort to be factual.

Edited January 15Jan 15 by bwheats

This has nothing to do with Cleveland. He wants US Steel and will stop at nothing to get it. It’s clearly all consuming for him. 

22 minutes ago, bwheats said:

@AsDustinFoxWouldSay

Honestly you have the most doom and gloom takes time after time, and your post provides zero substance reflecting the actual landscape of our downtown/city versus others. It remains the largest cbd in Ohio. In comparison, my hometown of Pittsburgh has a downtown that’s in bad shape and with a BNY Mellon building that’s nearly empty. So much so the governor is stepping in to provide stimulus there. 
 

And these comments come on the heels of complete conjecture espoused from an excitable CEO. I very much appreciate KJPs reporting but there is nothing to suggest that Gonclaves is seriously thinking of moving the company. 
 

Cleveland has been on a tremendous roll with acquisitions and bringing companies here since before the pandemic. Parker Hannifin, Park Ohio, Cliffs, Sherwin Williams, list goes on and on. The data supports that downtown CLE has had one of the best pandemic recoveries so let’s please make an earnest effort to be factual.

You're literally naming companies that aren't even in Cleveland proper. They're in the burbs, which again, has led to a downtown that is largely considered "dead"

1 hour ago, AsDustinFoxWouldSay said:

You're literally naming companies that aren't even in Cleveland proper. They're in the burbs, which again, has led to a downtown that is largely considered "dead"

But Cliffs and Sherwin ARE downtown 🤔

Literally across the street from each other and another fortune 500 company, Key Bank.

 

Parker is in the Cleveland MSA and Cleveland-Akron-Canton CSA.

WHEN DOES AN ACQUIREE GET TO DICTATE TERMS (LIKE A HQ LOCATION)?

-If US Steel chose Nippon because they were going to keep the HQ in Pitt - that's adorable (that deal is dead)

-US Steel needs to be acquired and Cliffs is the acquirer

-For all your bluster Mr. Goncalves, you're in the driver's seat and can dictate terms

-The HQ and staffing should be in Cleveland - FULL STOP

Anything less and Mr. Goncalves is less than his image and bluster