The General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. By sales, it was the largest automaker in the United States in 2022, and was the largest in the world for 77 years before losing the top spot to Toyota in 2008.
General Motors operates manufacturing plants in eight countries. Its four core automobile brands are Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. It also holds interests in Chinese brands Baojun and Wuling via SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile. GM also owns the BrightDrop delivery vehicle manufacturer, a namesake defense vehicles division which produces military vehicles for the United States government and military, the vehicle safety, security, and information services provider OnStar, the auto parts company ACDelco, a namesake financial lending service, and majority ownership in the self-driving cars enterprise Cruise LLC.
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In January 2021, GM announced plans to end production and sales of vehicles using internal combustion engines, including hybrid vehicles and plug-in hybrids, by 2035, as part of its plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. GM offers more flexible-fuel vehicles, which can operate on either E85 ethanol fuel or gasoline, or any blend of both, than any other automaker.
The company traces itself to a holding company for Buick established on September 16, 1908, by William C. Durant, the largest seller of horse-drawn vehicles at the time. The current entity was established in 2009 after the General Motors Chapter 11 reorganization.
As of January 2023, GM is ranked 25th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
General Motors Co. is an automobile company, which develops, manufactures and markets cars, trucks and parts worldwide. The company operates through the following automotive segments: GM North America, GM Europe, GM International Operations and GM South America. The GM North America segment sells vehicles under the brands Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac with sales, manufacturing and distribution operations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico and distribution operations in Central America and the Caribbean. The GM Europe segment sells vehicles under the brands Opel, Vauxhall and Chevrolet with sales, manufacturing and distribution operations across Western and Central Europe. The GM International Operations segment sells vehicles under the brands Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Daewoo, FAW, GMC, Holden, Isuzu, Jiefang, Opel and Wuling brands with sales, manufacturing and distribution operations in Asia-Pacific, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The GM South America segment sells vehicles under the brands Chevrolet, Suzuki and Isuzu with sales, manufacturing and distribution operations in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. It also provides automotive financing services through its subsidiary, General Motors Financial Co., Inc. (GM Financial). It finances its loan origination volume through the use of credit facilities and securitization trusts that issue asset-backed securities to investors. GM Financial specializes in purchasing retail automobile installment sales contracts originated by GM and non-GM franchised and select independent dealers in connection with the sale of used and new automobiles. GM Financial also offers lease products through GM dealerships in connection with the sale of used and new automobiles that target customers with sub-prime and prime credit bureau scores. The firm sells vehicles to its dealers for consumer retail sales and also sells cars and trucks to fleet customers, including daily rental car companies, commercial fleet customers, leasing companies and governments. It sells vehicles to fleet customers directly or through its network of dealers. The company offers a wide range of after sale vehicle services and products through its dealer network, such as maintenance, light repairs, collision repairs, vehicle accessories and extended service warranties to retail and fleet customers. General Motors was founded by William C. Durant on September 16, 1908 and is headquartered in Detroit, MI.“
“General Motors History
The company was founded on September 16, 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company for Buick, then controlled byWilliam C. Durant. At the beginning of the 20th century there were fewer than 8,000 automobiles in America and Durant had become a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in Flint before making his foray into the automotive industry. GM’s co-founder was Charles Stewart Mott, whose carriage company was merged into Buick prior to GM’s creation. Over the years Mott became the largest single stockholder in GM and spent his life with his Mott Foundation which has benefited the city of Flint, his adopted home. GM acquired Oldsmobile later that year. In 1909, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland and several others. Also in 1909, GM acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers’ trust, because of the large amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions coupled with a collapse in new vehicle sales.
The next year, Durant started the Chevrolet Motor Car Company and through this he secretly purchased a controlling interest in GM. Durant took back control of the company after one of the most dramatic proxy wars in American business history. Durant then reorganized General Motors Company into General Motors Corporation in 1916. Shortly after, he again lost control, this time for good, after the new vehicle market collapsed. Alfred P. Sloan was picked to take charge of the corporation and led it to its post-war global dominance. This unprecedented growth of GM would last into the early 1980s when it employed 349,000 workers and operated 150 assembly plants.
GM led global sales for 77 consecutive years from 1931 through 2007, longer than any other automaker. In 2008, 2009, and 2010, GM has ranked as the second largest global automaker by sales. The company regained its position as the world’s largest automaker, by vehicle unit sales, in 2011. GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2009, following the recession of 2008–2009 and a failure to obtain government loans.
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
On July 10, 2009, General Motors emerged from government backed Chapter 11 reorganization after an initial filing on June 8, 2009.[15][16] Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn were closed. After initially moving to shut down the Swedish brand, Saab was sold to Dutch automaker Spyker. Shareholders did not have access to assets from GM in Asia or Europe. In 2010, GM returned to using its traditional ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange, and in 2010 is also traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company was relisted on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange again on November 18, 2010, following a US$33-a-share initial public offering of US$23 billion, including preferred shares. The proportion of the Company held by the U.S. Treasury department reduced from 61% to about 26%, including preferred shares and accounting for stock options given to former GM bondholders. Initial sale of such shares gave the Treasury department about US$13.6 billion in proceeds. SAIC Motor, partner of GM in China and India, acquired just less than 1 percent of the GM shares for about $500 million. Following 2010 IPO, the U.S. government retained a 26% stake in GM. A White House report sent to Congress in August 2012 estimated the sale of the remaining GM stock acquired by the United States Treasury during the company’s bankruptcy will result in a loss of $25.1 billion to the American taxpayer.[23] In December 2012, the U.S. Government further reduced its holdings to 19%. On December 10, 2013, the U.S. Treasury sold the last of its GM stock bringing an end to the controversial government ownership of the car company. The final cost of the GM bailout cost the U. S. taxpayer $12 billion ($10.5 billion for General Motors and $1.5 billion for former GM financing GMAC, now known as Ally).
A Center for Automotive Research (CAR) study reported that in just a single year, 2010, the automotive industry generated $91.5 billion in state and local tax revenue and $43 billion in federal tax revenue in the United States. The CAR studies have shown significant government tax revenues are generated by the auto industry.
2012 lawsuit
In 2012, a trust representing unsecured creditors of “old” GM filed a lawsuit against GM over payments made to hedge funds in 2009 in exchange for waiving of claims against GM’s Canadian subsidiary. The deal, of which presiding judge Robert Gerber says he was unaware – despite its disclosure in an SEC filing on the day GM sought Chapter 11 protection – could prompt a reopening of the 2009 case.”
*Information from Forbes.com and Wikipedia.org
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