General Motors From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [1] General Motors Company, which is commonly known as GM, is an American multinational General Motors Company corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, that designs, manufactures, markets and distributes vehicles and vehicle parts and sells financial services. The current company, General Motors Company LLC, ("new GM"), was founded in 2009, after the bankruptcy of the General Motors Corporation ("old GM"). The new, smaller, company purchased many of the assets of "old GM", including the name "General Motors". The old company changed its name to Motors Liquidation Company and was liquidated. The new company retained four of its major brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick, 3600 out of 6000 of its US dealerships, and some of its US plants, eliminating the jobs of 20,000 of its 80,000 current employees.[6] Contents 1 Business units 2 History 2.1 Chapter 11 Bankruptcy 3 Corporate governance 3.1 Financial results 4 World presence 4.1 North America The GM Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. 4.2 South America Type Public Traded as NYSE: GM 4.3 Europe (https://www.nyse.com/quote/XNYS:GM) S&P 500 Component 4.4 Asia Industry Automotive 4.5 Africa Founded General Motors Corporation September 16, 1908 4.6 Oceania General Motors Company[1] August 11, 2009 5 Motorsports Founder William C. Durant 6 Research and development Charles Stewart Mott Frederic L. Smith 7 Small car sales Headquarters Detroit, Michigan, U.S. 8 Environmental initiatives Number of 396 facilities on six continents[2] locations 8.1 Hybrid electric vehicles Area served Worldwide (except North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria) 8.2 All-electric vehicles Key people Tim Solso 8.3 Battery packs for electric vehicles (Chairman) Mary Barra 8.4 Hydrogen initiative (CEO) Dan Ammann 8.5 Flexible-fuel vehicles (President) Products Automobiles 9 Philanthropy Automobile parts 10 Brand reorganization Commercial vehicles Production 9,714,652 vehicles (2013)[3] 10.1 Discontinued brands output Services Vehicle financing 10.2 Former subsidiaries Revenue US$ 155.929 billion (2014)[4] 10.3 Current affiliates Operating US$ 3.141 billion (2014)[4] income 10.4 Former affiliates Net income US$ 3.949 billion (2014)[4] 10.5 Spin-offs Total assets US$ 177.677 billion (2014)[4] 11 Controversies Total equity US$ 36.024 billion (2014)[4] 11.1 Ralph Nader and the Corvair Number of 216,000 (2015)[2] employees 11.2 Labor Practices Divisions Buick 11.3 Environmental Record Chevrolet Cadillac 11.3.1 Use of ambient temperature switches GMC Subsidiaries List 11.3.2 Disengaging of emission controls with ECU software Website gm.com (http://gm.com) 11.4 Defective ignition system investigation Footnotes / references [5] 11.5 GM Recalls 1.4 million vehicles that leak oil and catch fire 12 See also 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External links Business units General Motors produces vehicles in 37 countries under thirteen brands: Alpheon, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Holden, HSV, Opel, Vauxhall, Wuling, Baojun, Jie Fang, UzDaewoo.[7][8] General Motors holds a 20% stake in IMM, and a 77% stake in GM Korea. It also has a number of joint-ventures, including Shanghai GM, SAIC-GM-Wuling and FAW-GM in China, GM-AvtoVAZ in Russia, Ghandhara Industries in Pakistan, GM Uzbekistan, General Motors India, General Motors Egypt, and Isuzu Truck South Africa. General Motors employs 212,000 people and does business in more than 120 countries.[2] General Motors is divided into five business segments: GM North America (GMNA), Opel Group, GM International Operations (GMIO), GM South America (GMSA), and GM Financial.[9]:12, 13 General Motors led global vehicle sales for 77 consecutive years from 1931 through 2007, longer than any other automaker, and is currently among the world's largest automakers by vehicle unit sales.[10] General Motors acts in most countries outside the U.S. via wholly owned subsidiaries, but operates in China through 10 joint ventures.:18, 96[9] GM's OnStar subsidiary provides vehicle safety, security and information services. In 2009, General Motors shed several brands, closing Saturn, Pontiac, and Hummer, and emerged from a government-backed Chapter 11 reorganization. In 2010, the reorganized GM made an initial public offering that was one of the world's top five largest IPOs to date and returned to profitability later that year.[11] History The company was founded on September 16, 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company for McLaughlin Car Company of Canada Limited and Buick, then controlled by William C. Durant.[12] At the beginning of the 20th century there were fewer than 8,000 automobiles in America and Durant had become a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in Flint before making his foray into the automotive industry.[13] GM's co-founder was Charles Stewart Mott, whose carriage company was merged into Buick prior to GM's creation. Over the years Mott became the largest single stockholder in GM and spent his life with his Mott Foundation which has benefited the city of Flint, his adopted home. GM acquired Oldsmobile later that year. In 1909, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland and several others. Also in 1909, GM acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant lost control of GM in 1910 along with R. S. McLaughlin to a bankers' trust, because of the large amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions coupled with a collapse in new vehicle sales.[14] The next year, Durant started the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911 in the U.S. in Canada in 1915 and through this he secretly purchased a controlling interest in GM. Durant took back control of the company after one of the most dramatic proxy wars in American business history. Durant then reorganized General Motors Company into General Motors Corporation in 1916 Merging General Motors of Canada Limited as an ally in 1918. Shortly after, he again lost control, this time for good, after the new vehicle market collapsed. Alfred P. Sloan was picked to take charge of the corporation and led it to its post-war global dominance when the seven manufacturing facilities operated by Chevrolet before GM acquired the company began to contribute to GM operations. These facilities were added to the individual factories that were exclusive to Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland, and other companies acquired by GM. This unprecedented growth of GM would last into the early 1980s when it employed 349,000 workers and operated 150 assembly plants. The longest-lived continuous automobile nameplate still in General Motors led global sales for 77 consecutive years from 1931 through 2007, longer than any other automaker. In 2008, 2009 production in the world is the and 2010, GM has ranked as the second largest global automaker by sales. The company regained its position as the world's Chevrolet Suburban largest automaker, by vehicle unit sales, in 2011.[10] General Motors acts in most countries outside the U.S. via wholly owned subsidiaries, but operates in China through 10 joint ventures.:18, 96[9] GM's OnStar subsidiary provides vehicle safety, security and information services. In 2009, General Motors shed several brands, closing Saturn, Pontiac, and Hummer, and emerged from a government-backed Chapter 11 reorganization. In 2010, the reorganized GM made an initial public offering that was one of the world's top five largest IPOs to date and returned to profitability later that year.[11] As of 2011, General Motors produces vehicles in 37 countries under thirteen brands: Alpheon, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Holden, HSV, Opel, Vauxhall, Wuling, Baojun, Jie Fang, UzDaewoo.[7][8] General Motors holds a 20% stake in IMM, and a 77% stake in GM Korea. It also has a number of joint-ventures, including Shanghai GM, SAIC-GM-Wuling and FAW-GM in China, GM-AvtoVAZ in Russia, Ghandhara Industries in Pakistan, GM Uzbekistan, General Motors India, General Motors Egypt, and Isuzu Truck South Africa. General Motors employs 212,000 people and does business in more than 120 countries.[2] General Motors is divided into five business segments: GM North America (GMNA), Opel Group, GM International Operations (GMIO), GM South America (GMSA), and GM Financial.[9]:12, 13 Chapter 11 Bankruptcy On July 10, 2009, General Motors emerged from government backed Chapter 11 reorganization after an initial filing on June 8, 2009.[15][16] Through the Troubled Asset Relief Program the US Treasury invested $49.5 billion in General Motors and recovered $39 billion when it sold its shares on December 9, 2013 resulting in a loss of $10.3 billion. The Treasury invested an additional $17.2 billion into GM's former financing company, GMAC (now Ally). The shares in Ally were sold on December 18, 2014 for $19.6 billion netting $2.4 billion.[17][18] A study by the Center for Automotive Research found that the GM bailout saved 1.2 million jobs and preserved $34.9 billion in tax revenue.[19] In the reorganization, Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn were closed.[20] After initially moving to shut down the Swedish brand Saab, GM eventually sold it to Dutch automaker Spyker.[21] Corporate governance Based on global sales, General Motors is routinely among the world's largest automakers.[22] Headquartered at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, GM employs approximately 202,000 people around the world. In 2009, General Motors sold 6.5 million cars and trucks globally; in 2010, it sold 8.4 million. As of 2015, Theodore (Tim) Solso is the non-executive chairman of the board of directors, Mary Barra is the chief executive officer (CEO) and Daniel Ammann is the president.l[23][24] The head of design, Edward T.