Foreign Investment

General Motors Company, also known as GM, is a United States-based automaker with headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. GM manufactures cars and trucks in 34 countries, recently employed 244,500 people around the world, and sells and services vehicles in some 140 countries.[3] By sales, GM ranked as the largest US automaker and the world's second largest for 2008,[3] having the third highest 2008 global revenues among automakers on the Fortune Global 500.[4]

On June 1, 2009, General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, which were completed on July 10 of the same year, and it was thereafter reorganized once a new entity acquired the most valuable assets. GM is now temporarily majority owned by the United States Treasury and, to a smaller extent, the Canada Development Investment Corporation[5] and the government of Ontario[6][7][8], with the US government investing a total of US$57.6 billion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.[9]

On April 21, 2010, GM CEO Ed Whitacre Jr. announced that the company had paid back the entire amount of the US and Canadian government loans, with interest, a total of $8.1 billion.[10] The company expects to repurchase a sizable portion of the remaining equity stake with funds earned via a public stock offering. While no GM shares are currently available to the public, the company's plans as of 2009 were to initiate an initial public stock offering (IPO) in 2010.[11]

GM plans to focus its business on its four core North American brands: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. In Europe, following a period of negotiation to sell a majority stake in its Opel and Vauxhall brands, the company decided to retain full ownership of these operations.[12] However, on February 23, 2010, GM sold Saab Automobile to Spyker Cars NV and is winding down its Hummer,[13] Pontiac, and Saturn brands, the latter two remaining under the old GM, now known as Motors Liquidation Company.

History

Main article: History of General Motors

General...