An editorial in the Harvard Business Review heavily criticizes GM for bowing to a group of activist investors and buying back $8 billion in stock. The piece rails against the idea of these buybacks in general.
General Motors is agreeing to a $5 billion stock buy-back and other provisions in exchange for Harry J. Wilson not running for a seat on its board. The compromise ends an attempt by activist investors to return even more money to shareholders.
A former Obama aide, Harry J. Wilson, is leading a group of investment funds urging General Motors to buy back $8 billion worth of its stock, which could raise share prices. Wilson also wants a seat on the GM board.
The government's Auto Task Force was given the difficult task of saving General Motors and Chrysler at a time when the credit markets were frozen and the economy was in chaos. The team ultimately got the job done by ushering the two iconic companies through extraordinarily short bankruptcies.
The Detroit News is reporting that a federal judge has thrown out a portion of the lawsuit brought against the federal government by Delphi retirees. The former employees of the automotive supplier brought suit against the federal government after their pensions were terminated in bankruptcy proceedings. U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow dismissed claims against the U.S. Treasury Department, Zach Bowman
Last week, the government avoided a costly shutdown by cutting $38 billion from the 2012 federal budget. The American people are just now hearing what those cuts consist of, and it appears the auto industry and industry regulation have been affected.
According to Reuters, the Securities and Exchange Commission is set to settle with the former head of the Obama Administration's auto task force, Steven Rattner. Earlier this year, the SEC charged Rattner with participating in a pay-to-play pension program, but the commission is expected to announce today that the former car czar has agreed to pay a fine of more than $5 million and accept a
General Motors and Chrysler terminated the contracts of thousands of dealers while the automakers were in bankruptcy proceedings; a move that was required by the Obama Administration's auto task force as a condition of bankruptcy. The scheme was heralded as a way to save the struggling automakers millions or even billions of dollars, but special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief P
Steven Rattner, the man who headed the Auto Task Force, saved Michigan from bankruptcy, shepherded the still-contentious resurrections of General Motors and Chrysler and w
Last December General Motors began repaying its debt to the U.S. government by making a $1 billion payment to its U.S. debtors and another $192 million to Canada. Company CEO Ed Whitacre promised that the payments would keep coming every quarter until the loan was paid off in June, 2010, and with the first quarter of 2010 coming to a close, T
Good news, the check is in the mail! General Motors issued a (very) brief press release this afternoon stating that the automaker had delivered on its promise to issue its first reimbursement checks to the U.S. and Canadian governments by the end of the year. GM sent $1 billion to the feds and $192 million to the Canadian government, and GM reiterated in the statement that it would complete payments totaling $6.7 billion (to the U.S. gov
2009 isn't quite over yet, but we're pretty sure most automakers would rather forget that it ever happened. And while General Motors and Chrysler suffered the pain and humiliation of bankruptcy and workers lost thousands of jobs and many plants and dealerships closed, the good news is that the General and the Pentastar are now more fiscally healthy than they've been in ages. The bad n
Two weeks ago Fiat and Chrysler unleashed an ambitious five-year plan to return Detroit's number three automaker to financial and product health. The plan called for 14 all-new models based mostly on Fiat platforms and ten more vehicles which will receive much-needed attention. While S
The last two chief financial officers at General Motors, Rick Wagoner and Fritz Henderson, eventually became CEO. Ray Young, who has been CFO at the General for less than a year and a half, likely won't make it to the top. The Detroit News reports that Young is going to resign his post as CFO in the weeks ahead, and he may be only one of a few departures among senior GM brass.
On March 30, President Obama announced that the federal government would back the warranties of General Motors and Chrysler in the event of bankruptcy. When the president says the word "backing," he means cold, hard cash, and in this case the total was $641 million. But with both companies out of bankruptcy court and flush with the government cash needed to run their businesses, it is apparently time to pay the money back.
Steve Rattner, the former Wall Street executive who was tapped by the Obama Administration run point for the Auto Task Force, is reportedly stepping down after five months on the job. According to a statement from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Rattner (above, far right) will now "transition back to private life and his family in New York City." He added, "I hope that he takes another opportunity to bring his unique skills to government service in the future."
According to Reuters, General Motors is on its way into bankruptcy court today in an effort to win approval and access to additional federal funding under its asset-split plan. The automaker filed for Chapter 11 protection just 30 days ago, but it will now go before Judge Robert Gerber to sell desirable assets (think: Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, Buick) to "New GM" and jettison various debts and negative assets by consigning them to "Old GM," which would be liquidated. If it succeeds in wi
Ralph Nader, the man who single-handedly sank the Chevrolet Corvair by exposing its safety faults in his book Unsafe At Any Speed, has unexpectedly appeared at the side of General Motors. In a letter written to Senator Chris Dodd, Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and Barney Frank, Chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, Nader warns the Congressmen about the risk of leaving GM's fate in the hands of the Auto Task Force, or what he call
June 1, 2009 is turning into the equivalent of General Motors' D-Day, and every day seems to bring new events that are being planned in advance of it. GM had more than 6,000 dealerships at the end of last year, and in the initial viability plan it offered to the government, the automaker pledged to close 25% of those over the next five years. As with the rest of the plan, the Auto Task Force said "That isn't enough."
If General Motors' saga were a play by Aeschylus, today marks the day when Kent Kresa, GM's interim chairman, returns from a visit to the Oracle at Delphi and informs everyone that the signs are not auspicious. There's been much talk of the bondholder issues that GM faces, and the news today is that the deadline for the debt-for-equity transaction isn't June 1 -- it's this Friday. That's when a bondholder agreement would need to be in place so GM would have everything sorted before its upcoming
