GM’s Whitacre resigns
Today, in a surprise announcement, we learned that General Motors CEO, Edward Whitacre will be leaving that office effective September 1, and resigning as Chairman of the Board effective December 31. While everyone knew that he had no intention of remaining with GM for any extended period of time, most expected that he would at least stay until GM had gone through the initial public offering of “new” GM stock.
Curiously, just last week at an auto conference in Michigan, Mr. Whitacre had this to say when asked about the IPO and the federal government’s current ownership of 60% of GM:
We want the government out, period… We don’t want to be known as Government Motors…Eliminating government ownership would be good for employee morale and would improve GM’s image.
Hummm, wonder if there is a connection…
With this administration, there is always a connection.
Remember that Obama IS the largest shareholder.
Lest we we forget we ALL have a stake in GM. As to Whitacre, his leaving at this time is a bad move.
During the Øbama takeover, stock and bond holders got about ten cents on the dollar. How many of those stock/bond holders were pension and retiree groups?
How many of the former share holders intend on purchasing the "new" stock in GM?
Burn me once, shame on you; burn me twice, shame on me!
Why are the car companies singled out? What about the banks and insurance companies that were bailed out after causing the collapse and even betting on it. Is it because they were bailed out by the previous administration? We need to keep American manufacturing alive and keeping the car companies alive goes a long way towards that goal. There are only so many walmarts you can build.
You can't single out Ford, who made twice the profit Government Motors did last quarter.
Bankruptcy is the mechanism that should be used, not takeovers and subsidies. Didn't GM go bankrupt anyway?
Will Whitacre be leaving (on his last day) behind the wheel of a brand new Volt??!!??!!
Unfortunately we ALL do have a stake in GM as sammy22 points out above. Only thing is that if I wanted to buy stock in GM, I certainly could have. But I didn't because I didn't want to. But the government did…so now, it's going to be "save GM at all costs". Somewhat concerning.
Shocking! (Get it? Ha-haa)