It's a classic Gordon Gecko despite the optics. It's also a classic case of what happens if you have a public company that's not 51% owned by the family - the family and the community always lose. I'd give Timken (both parts) not more than 5 years, probably less than 2, to die. Most likely, it'll just close, but parts might spin off to oil service companies, other steel companies, and Chinese bearing makers (all offshore and/or nonunion). Also notice that the first thing they did was defund pensions and health care - throwing the employees and retirees into the overextended Federal pension insurance plan which will cut pensions in half or more - and lock out the union. The company was doing fine with a union, a pension plan, and employee health care, but raider types don't like that - they want the company to fail so they can unload the profitable bits. Employees and operating income are not profitable - only convertible (to cash, this quarter) assets are - in the current Wall Street environment.

If CalSTRS was involved in the way the story says, they are stupid. But of course they are so far underfunded that anything that makes a profit NOW is good no matter how bad for the long term. Hope they got out at the same time the raiders did to preserve something from the debacle, but somehow I doubt it (they wouldn't be thinking that clearly). Anybody want to go picket them as a destroyer of American industry?