General Motors

As of April 24, 2009 (2009 -04-24), GM has received US$15.4 billion in loans from the US Treasury Department under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP). GMAC, a financing company held 49% by GM, has received US$5 billion in loans under the same program, while GM has received an additional US$1 billion loan to buy more equity in GMAC. General Motors Canada, 100% owned by GM, has received a combined loan commitment of C$3 billion from the Canadian and Ontario governments.

General Motors filed for a government-assisted Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 1, 2009, in the federal court in Manhattan, New York, with a plan to re-emerge as a smaller and less debt-burdened organization in several months. As ranked by total assets, the bankruptcy is the fourth-largest in U.S. history, following Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Washington Mutual and WorldCom Inc.

General Motors

General Motors Corporation (GM) (Pink Sheets: GMGMQ) / (OTCBB: GMGMQ) is a U.S. automaker based in Detroit, Michigan and is the world?s second-largest automaker, as ranked by global unit sales for 2008. The company is continuing its operations while in bankruptcy proceedings before a U.S. federal bankruptcy court.

GM was the global sales leader for 77 consecutive calendar years from 1931 to 2007. It manufactures cars and trucks in 34 countries. GM employs 244,500 people around the world, and sells and services vehicles in some 140 countries. In 2008, 8.35 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the brands Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Opel, Vauxhall, Holden, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Wuling.

In late 2008 GM, along with Chrysler, received loans from the American, Canadian, and Ontario governments to avoid bankruptcy resulting from the late-2000s recession, record oil prices, health care and retiree expenses, and heavy competition. On February 20, 2009, GM?s Saab division filed for reorganization in a Swedish court after being denied loans from the Swedish government. On April 27, 2009, amid ongoing financial problems and restructuring efforts, GM announced that it would phase out the Pontiac brand by the end of 2010 and focus on four brands in North America: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC. It also announced that the resolution (sale) of its Hummer, Saab, and Saturn brands would take place by the end of 2009. GM had previously eliminated the Oldsmobile brand earlier in the decade for similar reasons.