GM enters bankruptcy filing - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Monday’s Chapter 11 filing by the 101-year-olc automaker — once the world’s biggest company is among the largestin U.S. historyy and largest-ever U.S. manufacturing bankruptcy. Chapter 11, whicb allows the company to operate while protected from its pushes GM intoa fast-track bankruptcyg and provides $30 billion of additionalp taxpayer funds to restructure itself. Generap Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said in a preparec statement that GM was being reinvented and that the companyg is ready for the jobat "The economic crisis has caused enormoues disruption in the auto industry, but with it has come the opportunitg for us to reinvent our business.
We are goingb to do it once and doit right. The court-supervisede process we are pursuin provides us with powerful tools to accelerate and completrour reinvention, as well as strong safeguardes for our customers and our he said. The GM plan as detailed by U.S. officiales would allow a much smallert GM to emerge from court protection within 60 to 90 GM also plans to close11 U.S. facilities and idle anothedr three plants by the endof 2010. The automaker has not provided an updated target for job cuts but was lookinb toeliminate 21,000 U.S. factory jobs from the 54,000 union members it now employs.
Also not immediately cleafr iswhat GM’s bankruptcy filing will mean for Minnesota'sd auto dealers, said Scott Lambert, executivs director of the . “Now it’s all in It’s a big, momentous day, but we have to wait to see how this all shakezs out before we reallyknow what’s happening.” GM recentlyg notified at least 23 local dealerships that theif franchisee agreements would not be renewed beyonde October 2010 as part of a plan to cut 1,10 dealers nationwide.
Now GM says it plans to expanc the cuts toinclude 2,100 dealerships, or about 40 percenrt of its national dealer “If you just take those numbers and apply them to we could lose another 30 guys,” Lambertr said. General Motors employs 92,000 in the Uniterd States and is indirectly responsiblefor 500,000 The U.S. government woulsd hold a 60 percent financia interest in a reorganized GM and the UAW woulc takea 17.5 percenr stake. The governments of Canada and the provincr of Ontario have agreed to a 12 percent ownershipo stake in exchange forfinancial aid. GM bondholders wouldc get 10 percent.