Word: gm
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...talks with Opel owners General Motors back on track, Merkel is reportedly ready to abandon her previous plan to force GM to sell a controlling stake in its European business to a consortium of Canadian-Austrian car-parts maker Magna International and Russia's Sberbank. According to the German tabloid Bild, the German government has told GM's chief negotiator, John Smith, that Berlin will consider GM's preferred investor, the Belgian industrial group RHJI, as long as it teams up with a partner from the automotive industry. (See TIME's photo-essay "GM's Eight Great Hopes...
...German government has been negotiating with GM over Opel since March. The U.S. automaker wants Germany to provide state guarantees for Opel of up to $6.4 billion. In return, the Germans wanted GM to agree to sell a 55% stake in Opel to the Magna-Sberbank consortium. At first GM seemed to be playing ball. It spun off Opel into a trust to protect the Rüsselsheim-based manufacturer from GM's Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. (Read "Ron Bloom Monitors GM - and Eyes the Exit...
...talks stalled and Merkel declared the entire GM-Opel mess to be "chefsache," or a matter for the boss. After lengthy and tense talks, GM negotiators finally seemed to agree to the German plan...
...Over the past few days, though, everything has come undone again. GM's management, which now includes U.S. government appointees after Washington's massive bailout of the Detroit firm, is split. Some on the board want GM to sell its European operations and focus on the U.S. market. And GM cannot use money from U.S. taxpayers to restructure Opel. (See pictures of General Motors factory-scapes...
...manufacturers like GM, Hyundai and Ford wise to boost production at this point in the economic cycle? Yes, as long as the production increases are done for the right type of vehicles - such as high-demand, low-supply, gas-efficient cars and crossovers - and for the right price point. Recently announced production increases are modest and fit this description; therefore, I'd agree with them. The worst-case scenario for dealers - and the manufacturers - is to have qualified buyers on your lot and not have the inventory to sell. (See the most exciting cars...