Report: GM ending of distracting trail of failed deals
By Andrew C., 27 Aug, 2010. 0 Comments
GM Logo
General Motors Co. continues to be hounded by trouble months after it emerged from a 40-day bankruptcy in July. Recent reports about GM have been about problems with deal-making and about a shakeup of management. Since September, a deal to sell the Saturn brand has failed, an offer to sell its European unit Opel was pulled, the sale of Hummer to a Chinese firm has been delayed and Saab now faces closure.
It can be recalled that former CEO Fritz Henderson vowed that a "new GM" would listen to customers and would seek to reform a risk-averse corporate culture blamed for its long-running decline. The restructuring funded with $50 billion in US aid made GM stop worrying about financial engineering and to focus instead on engineering better cars and selling more of them. Henderson famously said, "If we don't get this right, nothing else is going to work." GM's plan coming out of Chapter 11 had been to focus attention on its core brands (Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC) as it sold off or closed the rest. That strategy has not gone smoothly and has even contributed to a shake-up of management with the largest casualty being Henderson himself. [via autonews]
Latest Auto Shows
