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Filed under: Marketing/Advertising , GM Celebrity endorsements are a powerful thing. For instance, when you see someone wearing a set of fly Nike high tops, Michael Jordan invariably comes to mind. And when you see a Buick Rendezvous roll by, no doubt an image of Tiger Woods is conjured. Alright, so maybe the greatest golfer ever got the short end of that 9 iron, but it doesn't matter much anymore as General Motors has announced that its ending Buick's nine-year endorsement deal with Tiger Woods effective December 31, 2008. GM says the decision to separate was amicable and mutual (they always say that). For his part, Tiger has a second cub on the way and GM, well... GM would rather keep its assembly plants open a few extra days than pay an athlete to stand next to a Buick Lacrosse. Smart choice, we'd say. And now, when Congress asks Rick Wagoner for examples of how GM is sacrificing during these tough economic times, he can tell them, "We fired Tiger Woods!". You check...
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Filed under: GM , Opel General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has already stated that the only brand in his company's portfolio up for sale is HUMMER , but apparently this hasn't stopped interested parties from making their play for other marques under the General's umbrella. News broke today that German solar energy company SolarWorld has offered GM nearly $1.3 billion USD for the Opel brand that's sold exclusively in Europe. Broken down by Euros, SolarWorld is offering 250 million euros cash and another 750 million in bank credits. In return it wants Opel's four production plants and research center in Ruesselsheim, as well as rights to the Opel name and all that. A few other conditions that make the proposal extremely improbable are a complete break from GM and compensation payments of 40,000 euros per Opel worker for a total of 1 billion euros. So GM would basically get a billion euros for the sale of Opel and have to pay it all right back in compensation payments. Hmmm...
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Filed under: Government/Legal , Hirings/Firings/Layoffs , GM , Earnings/Financials General Motors' CEO, Rick Wagoner, who's been manning the helm for the last eight years and a part of its staff since 1977, has taken some heat for asking the Feds for a bailout. A possible condition for those funds may be the symbolic sacrificial death of its current leader, according to a slew of analysts polled by Bloomberg . Whether true of false, there seems to be a sense that the CEOs of U.S. automakers are some of "the dumbest people in the world," according to ex-Chrysler prez. Thomas Stallkamp. Ouch. Ford has stated that it doesn't need a bailout and Chrysler is actively looking for partners to keep itself alive. In the last few months, when the government has bailed out institutions such as AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, one stipulation was that its top management be replaced, and that sentiment may stick around if the Detroit 3 receive packages of their own. Although Wagoner...
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Filed under: GM , Earnings/Financials With General Motors dropping its $2.5 billion bomb on Friday, analysts, brokers and the public at large were waiting until today to see where the General's stock price would end up. At the end of the day, it's hovering around $3.36 a share , up from this morning where it hit $3.04, or four pennies away from its lowest rate in over 60 years. The plunge is hardly a surprise as analysts -- and GM -- admit that without a Federally-funded cash injection the automaker would run out of working capital early next year, or worse, before the end of 2008. Throwing salt into the wound is Deutsche Bank, which reduced GM's rating to "sell" with a price target of $0.00. In addition to the $25 billion in loans that Congress has already approved, Detroit's Big 2.8 have asked for another $25 billion, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot off a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson trying to get the $700 billion bailout to the financial industry...
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Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing , GM , Earnings/Financials There are worse things than being forced to take vacation days -- like your employer going belly-up -- so General Motors is asking the tens of thousands of workers at its Vehicle Engineering Center and the Milford and Mesa Proving Grounds to stay home on December 22nd and 23rd. Factories won't plan any additional idle days in December, but the Engineering Center alone employs more than 16,000 people, so significant savings can be realized from those two additional days of quiet time. Just shutting out the lights and turning the heat back to 55 degrees, even in such large facilities, isn't going to turn GM around in a singular motion, but it's a low-impact way to conserve scarce money. It's also probably a lot easier to get the engineers to take time off than it is to fight with the unions at each assembly plant. One thing that would stick in our craw: if you've already used up all your vaca, you'll have...
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Filed under: GM , Earnings/Financials General Motors was supposed to issue a press release detailing its third quarter earnings results at 10:30AM EST this morning, a time which has come gone without a word from the General. As a result, the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of the automaker's stock at 11:04AM pending the results. An interview that GM CEO Rick Wagoner had scheduled on Bloomberg Television to coincide with the earnings announcement at 10:30AM has also reportedly been pushed back to 12:55PM. The automaker is mum on what's taking so long to release its Q3 report, which is widely expected to contain terrible earnings news. While some are suggesting that the delay implies these results will be worse than expected, we don't see how waiting a few extra hours is going to change the numbers one way or another. We do, however, expect GM not to sugar coat its poor financial performance in the third quarter, as the louder it screams the sky is falling, the more...
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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative , Japan , GM , Toyota , Rumormill Click above to enlarge the Creation of Wagoner from our friends at Motive According to a report by Japan's Kyodo News , General Motors' chief executive and chairman Rick Wagoner is considering visiting Toyota in Japan to discuss a myriad of issues, ranging from funding to parts sharing. In typical fashion (of late), the story cites unnamed sources saying Toyota is "expected to consider quick fixes for the cash-strapped GM, including buying up its assets and helping secure sufficient business funds." The talks are also said to include a partnership that would license Toyota's hybrid technology for use in GM products, along with ToMoCo building fuel-efficient, compact cars for the General. We're suitably skeptical about any kind of partnership between the world's two automotive giants, particular since no one from Toyota or GM was willing to comment for the story. More to come... or not. Watch...
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Filed under: Marketing/Advertising , Buick , GM Tiger Woods has been a Buick spokesman since 1999, but both General Motors and the greatest golfer of all time are in a holding pattern regarding a new endorsement contract. Tiger's current deal, which expires in 2009, was reportedly for $40 million over five years. Though getting Tiger was a coup for Buick, many wonder why GM would give the world's most popular athlete to its low volume Buick brand instead of Cadillac or even use him across multiple marques. Both GM and Tiger are taking a wait-and-see approach towards negotiations on a new contract, with both sides having met once and agreed only on when they should meet a second time. The automotive landscape is tenuous at best, and GM is taking a major hit on the sales floor and on Wall St., which could make retaining Mr. Woods more difficult. We're pretty sure Tiger will end up hocking cars for one automaker or another, so the General better find some funds fast if it doesn't...
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Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs , GM , Earnings/Financials Back in July, General Motors announced its plan to reduce salary spending by 20% and its white-collar workforce by 15% or 5,100 jobs. Those workers are out of a job on November 1st, but a new round of job cuts means even more empty cubicles for the world's largest automaker. The Detroit News is reporting that GM plans to lay off more white-collar workers despite having already reached its goal of reducing the company's salaried workforce by 5,100 jobs. While a specific number of how many more jobs would be cut wasn't given, a letter sent to GM execs confirms that more pink slips will be handed out by the end of this year and into early 2009. To further reduce spending, GM is also canceling certain employee benefits including its 401k matching program, tuition reimbursement and adoption assistance programs. All of these spending cuts are meant to help GM weather the storm until the auto industry bounces back from...
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Filed under: GM In this economic climate, everyone is looking to generate cash and reduce overhead. And General Motors is certainly no exception, the automotive giant already having announced its intention to sell off its HUMMER brand. The General is also looking to offload its facility in Strasbourg, France. But the biggest sale yet could be the potential divestment from ACDelco, one of GM's parts subsidiaries. ACDelco has been in operation for over 100 years, and offers no fewer than 37 product lines encompassing some 100,000 different parts on offer, both for GM vehicles and those made by rival automakers. The sale of ACDelco is part of a campaign to raise several billion in liquid assets for GM, and in as bold a sign of the times as any, the corporation has selected Merrill Lynch to manage the sale process. Full details in the press release after the jump. [Source: General Motors] Continue reading GM considers selling off ACDelco Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Green , Chevrolet , GM , GMC GM's new 4.5L Duramax diesel engine promises a 25% increase in fuel economy while providing 310 hp and 525 lb-ft. The new oil-burning powerplant also needs to pass 50 state emissions while providing the efficiency customers are demanding. GM has already provided some details of the Duramax 4.5L, including that the new diesel is roughly the same size as the General's compact small block V8, which means it can fit in more than just trucks and SUVs . The 4.5-liter also reduces the parts count with integrated aluminum cylinder head exhaust manifolds and an integral cam cover intake manifold. GM talked to Automotive News about new features of the lower half of the 4.5L Duramax, and they're just as extensive as the top. [Source: Automotive News subs req'd] Continue reading GM's Duramax diesel goes under the knife, loses weight Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Green , Chevrolet , GM , GMC GM's new 4.5L Duramax diesel engine promises a 25% increase in fuel economy while providing 310 hp and 525 lb-ft. The new oil-burning powerplant also needs to pass 50 state emissions while providing the efficiency customers are demanding. GM has already provided some details of the Duramax 4.5L, including that the new diesel is roughly the same size as the General's compact small block V8, which means it can fit in more than just trucks and SUVs . The 4.5-liter also reduces the parts count with integrated aluminum cylinder head exhaust manifolds and an integral cam cover intake manifold. GM talked to Automotive News about new features of the lower half of the 4.5L Duramax, and they're just as extensive as the top. [Source: Automotive News subs req'd] Continue reading GM's Duramax diesel goes under the knife, loses weight Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Green , Chevrolet , GM , GMC GM's new 4.5L Duramax diesel engine promises a 25% increase in fuel economy while providing 310 hp and 525 lb-ft. The new oil-burning powerplant also needs to pass 50 state emissions while providing the efficiency customers are demanding. GM has already provided some details of the Duramax 4.5L, including that the new diesel is roughly the same size as the General's compact small block V8, which means it can fit in more than just trucks and SUVs . The 4.5-liter also reduces the parts count with integrated aluminum cylinder head exhaust manifolds and an integral cam cover intake manifold. GM talked to Automotive News about new features of the lower half of the 4.5L Duramax, and they're just as extensive as the top. [Source: Automotive News subs req'd] Continue reading GM's Duramax diesel goes under the knife, loses weight Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Green , Chevrolet , GM , GMC GM's new 4.5L Duramax diesel engine promises a 25% increase in fuel economy while providing 310 hp and 525 lb-ft. The new oil-burning powerplant also needs to pass 50 state emissions while providing the efficiency customers are demanding. GM has already provided some details of the Duramax 4.5L, including that the new diesel is roughly the same size as the General's compact small block V8, which means it can fit in more than just trucks and SUVs . The 4.5-liter also reduces the parts count with integrated aluminum cylinder head exhaust manifolds and an integral cam cover intake manifold. GM talked to Automotive News about new features of the lower half of the 4.5L Duramax, and they're just as extensive as the top. [Source: Automotive News subs req'd] Continue reading GM's Duramax diesel goes under the knife, loses weight Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , GM Two brothers that own dealerships in Texas peddling the General's wares decided that the best way to combat the inevitable depreciation inflicted on their customers is to give them 50 shares of GM stock. The promotion involves the first 100 buyers (for GM's 100-year anniversary) and 5,000 shares in GM that the siblings bought at the end of last week. GM stock is floating between $6.00 and $7.00 today, meaning that the lucky 100 will have something in the neighborhood of $300-350... assuming GM's stock hold steady. It being Friday afternoon and an excruciatingly long week, we'll let you make the jokes in the comments below. [Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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