generalmotors posts
FeedPosted Aug 18th 2009 5:10PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: International Markets, Forecasts, Good news, Products and Services, Management, Consumer Experience, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Employees, Market Matters, Money and Finance Today, Canada, Workspace, Politics, Recession, Financial Crisis
The government's "cash for clunkers" has been far more popular than anyone thought, prompting
General Motors to boost production at several factories to keep up with demand.
While not everyone is so convinced that the "cash for clunkers" program is good for the economy, there is no doubt that the big American car makers are enjoying the benefits. Five days ago I wrote about the decision by
Ford Motor Company (NYSE:
F) to
boost production by 15% above its prior estimates, and today General Motors announced it will raising output and bringing back employees that it had been forced to lay off.
Continue reading General Motors to boost output
Posted Aug 13th 2009 3:20PM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Good news, Products and Services, Industry, Consumer Experience, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Money and Finance Today, Financial Crisis
With so many people rushing out to take advantage of the "cash for clunkers" program, American auto maker
Ford Motor (NYSE:
F) has announced that it will be
significantly boosting fourth quarter production.
There has been a lot of debate over whether or not the "cash for clunkers" program is good for the economy, but there is little debate as to its popularity. The program offers up to a $4,500 incentive for people exchanging their old gas guzzlers in for newer, more fuel efficient vehicles, and has been much more popular than anyone could have imagined.
Continue reading Ford boosts fourth quarter production
Posted Jul 29th 2009 3:40PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Back in August of 2008, General Motors pulled out of car leasing altogether, citing slumping demand, declining resale values, and financing problems. Now the company, in partnership with GMAC, is planning to reenter the leasing market on August 1st of this year.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the final plan is still being worked out, but the Cadillac CTS, "which competes in a luxury market that is heavily dependent on the availability of lease deals," is likely to be among the models included in the leasing line-up.
Continue reading General Motors goes back to car leasing: A sad day for consumers
Posted Jul 23rd 2009 9:00AM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Motors (GM)
The United States taxpayers will be tossing an average of $462,000 to every General Motors dealership that will be shut down as part of the company's reorganization plan. In all, GM will spend $600 million paying off dealers who are being closed as the company continues its drive toward a more efficient operation.
GM spokesman Greg Martin told (subscription required) the
Wall Street Journal that "GM developed a unique wind-down process that we believe is considerably more favorable to dealers" than what they would have received in an ordinary bankruptcy situation.
Continue reading General Motors pays off shutdown dealerships
Posted Jul 21st 2009 2:40PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Motors (GM)
UPDATE: This post inadvertently linked to a "Tell Fritz" website that is NOT the official site and is not connected with GM. For the real Tell Fritz feature, check out GMReinvention.com.General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson and his PR corps have managed to drum up quite a bit of press for his allegedly new, more transparent, consumer-friendly approach to running a car company.
The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "Mr. Henderson is planning various ways to remain the face of GM's turnaround effort, including a consistent string of media interviews and monthly national road shows starting in August, during which he plans to meet with dealers and interact with customers."
Tell Fritz is a new Twitter-like blog format where consumers can interact with the top man at GM. Someone hysterically, it's even equipped with Google Ads for companies like Fritz Hansen Furniture and Fritz the Schnauzer -- Multiple streams of income, here GM comes!
Continue reading WSJ gives GM more generous coverage
Posted Jul 16th 2009 11:20AM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Motors (GM)
Many observers were puzzled when General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson decided to make 77-year old company veteran Bob Lutz the company's chief of marketing.
A septuagenarian who was with the company from 1963-1971 and then from 2002 on would hardly seem like the fresh face to lead GM in the new millennium. The fact that he's a global warming denier also doesn't help his case.
BusinessWeek takes an interesting look at Lutz and what he does bring to the table: "Lutz has a way of filling up any room he is in. His power at GM has been that no one else in any room he was in had better judgment on how a car should look or feel when you drive it. And everyone else in the company knew it. Lutz is not trained in marketing. But he has gravitas and a way of pushing stupidity down the hole from whence it came."
Continue reading Why Bob Lutz is the wrong guy to lead GM's turnaround
Posted Jul 16th 2009 11:00AM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Motors (GM)
One thing that's been bothering me lately is the fact that shares of the old General Motors continue to trade with tremendous volatility -- interesting given that the shares are guaranteed to be worthless.
New York Post columnist John Crudele is
bothered by it too. He took the time to ask an SEC spokesperson why the commission doesn't just go ahead and halt trading in
MTLQQ -- the ticker symbol under which GM now trades as
Motors Liquidation Company. The response was classic bureaucratic barf: "The federal securities laws are designed to ensure that there is complete and accurate information about registered securities, not make judgments about the merits of any particular investment. Holders of GM stock are entitled to sell their shares and others are entitled to buy them."
Continue reading Halt trading in old GM shares already
Posted Jul 15th 2009 9:30AM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Motors (GM)
Former General Motors chairman and CEO Richard Wagoner was entitled to receive $23 million in retirement benefits as recently as last year, but after driving the company into bankruptcy and costing taxpayers billions, it's been decided that $23 million was too much.
Now Wagoner
will be getting just $8.6 million over the first five years of his retirement, a benefits cut the company said is consistent with what other workers are taking.
But wait a minute: How many other GM workers are getting $8.6 million? Not many, but I guess the argument GM is making is that it's consistent on a percentage basis. But how many of GM's workers were as directly responsible for the company's downfall as Mr. Wagoner?
Richard Wagoner's retirement package has gone from hilariously excessive to ridiculously excessive. In that sense, there's no principled distinction between Wagoner taking $23 million and taking $8.6 million. If he had any character or desire to salvage what's left of his legacy -- and prevent his children from having to bear the name of an infamous villain -- he would have turned down all retirement benefits and directed that they be used for the benefit of the company's lower-level workers.
Then, Mr. Wagoner could say that the price of his character was at least $8.6 million. But for now, this retirement package will do nothing but buy him some nice foreign cars and cement his place in the annals of infamous executives.
Posted Jul 13th 2009 10:30AM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: eBay (EBAY), General Motors (GM)
General Motors is in talks with
eBay (NASDAQ:
EBAY) to expand the pair's partnership to include new cars.
The Associated Press
reports that "GM CEO Fritz Henderson said the company is working on an "innovative new partnership" with eBay Inc. to let consumers in California bid on vehicles as they would in a normal eBay auction or choose a 'Buy it Now' option to purchase the car at a set price. Dealers would still distribute the cars."
Nothing has been finalized yet, but there are a number of interesting questions: If GM is going to work with eBay to find the buyers, why do the dealers need to be involved in distributing the cars? Is this just protectionism at its lowest ebb, or are the dealerships really going to be adding significant value to the transaction? As I've
written in the past on BloggingStocks, taxpayers should be deeply concerned that altruistic (or politically influenced) concern for the well-being of car dealers will undermine the turnaround of GM.
What does this "partnership" say about the future of GM? Probably nothing. Letting GM stick its cars on eBay costs eBay nothing -- the platform is already in place -- and has great upside potential if it goes well.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson's decision to hype the deal as an "innovative new partnership" is also indicative of just how hard he's spinning to win GM's battle for the hearts and minds of consumers.
Posted Jul 10th 2009 4:20PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Motors (GM)
Nearly four months after being pushed out as CEO, former General Motors head honcho Richard Wagoner is still officially an employee of the company. The reason? The company is still trying to figure out how much it has to give him to go away and keep his mouth shut.
The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "GM is keeping Mr. Wagoner on staff -- albeit only technically -- as the government decides on pay and benefit criteria for the company's top officers, obligations that will be the responsibility of the new GM once it emerges from bankruptcy protection, company spokeswoman Julie Gibson said."
Wagoner could be eligible for pension benefits valued at around $20 million, but GM and the United States government have concluded that that's simply too much to pay someone for destroying a company.
It's not yet clear how much Wagoner will end up settling for but one thing is certain: It will be far, far more than he would receive in any merit-based system.
If Richard Wagoner gets a Greyhound bus ticket to haul himself back to Delaware, it will be way, way too much.
Posted Jul 7th 2009 2:20PM by Zac Bissonnette (RSS feed)
Filed under: General Motors (GM)
Last week I wrote about the plans for a
General Motors IPO in 2010, which led to some confusion: General Motors has been publicly traded for nearly a century, so what's all this about an IPO?
One commenter asked "Does anyone know if you own GM stock now, and they have a new IPO what happens to your existing shares of the stock?"
The answer is a sad one, but here it is: The shares of the old GM will be "canceled" as part of the bankruptcy and only the shares of the new GM that can be purchased during and after the IPO will have any value. Shares of General Motors are still trading on the over the counter market for around 65 cents per share -- perhaps as a result of the confusion surrounding the bankruptcy. But it's extremely unlikely that those shareholders will get anything as part of the bankruptcy.
The reason is that shareholders always come last after creditors in a bankruptcy situation, and there isn't enough value in GM to make all the parties that are owed money whole. Because of that, there is nothing for shareholders.
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Everyone knew that the government's "cash for clunkers" program would be enticing to potential auto buyers, but no one, including the U.S. government could have predicted just how popular the program would be. 
The domestic automakers have all but given up and declared bankruptcy in an effort to survive in some form. Chrysler is about through its process, and GM is well on its way to becoming a completely new company. The standout: Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F). 
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