GM BEING DISMANTLED AND SOLD ABROAD

Our tax dollars at work.

GM is slowly being dismantled. First, there are talks for the Hummer line to be sold to China. (Whether it is the product line or the patents is holding up the final deal.) Then, Saab was sold to a Swedish consortium that will produce cars with China. (GM had decided earlier this year to dispose of Saab Automobile AB, its loss-making Swedish unit, which has been unprofitable for most of the two decades that the company owned it.)

Now GM has announced that it will sell 55% of Opel toto Magma, the Canadian autoparts maker. And its partner in the deal, Russian bank Sberbank. GM will retain 35pc and 10pc will be in the hands of the company's workers.
- From the Daily Telegraph (London) (Sept 10, 2008)

"2nd UPDATE: GM To Sell Opel To Magna; Issues Still To Resolve"
Germany has back the deal. GM employs just over 25,000 workers in Germany and has four production plants there. Germany has given bridge loans EUR1.5 billion ($2.16 billion) to Opel over several months. The UK government "said it still stands ready to offer financial support to Vauxhall." Opel has two Vauxhall plants in the U.K. One concern about selling Opel was the possibility of its technology being copied by rivals. GM "had rejected a bid for Opel from China's Beijing Automotive Industry Holding, or BAIC, because it was concerned about intellectual property rights going to China, and had similar concerns about the rights going to Russia under a Magna deal."
- Wall Street Journal (Sept 10, 2009)

Needed for the deal is the "written support of the labor unions to support the deal with the necessary cost restructuring for viability..." - WSJ article

Opel, which began building automobiles in 1899, was acquired by GM in 1929.
- Chicago Daily Herald

The German government would support financing the division through additional state guarantees.
- Forbes

"GM has been trying to unload Ruesselsheim, Germany-based Opel since it ran into severe financial trouble earlier this year. Industry analysts say the unit has too many employees and too much factory capacity for its sales level and its costs are too high." - Chicago Daily Herald

THAT LAST is probably a perfect match. European companies rarely make a profit because of their unions, government subsidies which lead to political direction.