Is GM going bankrupt?

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly


Uh, Ted? They're still around, and until they got dragged down when the tech bubble burst they were actually a more profitable company than they had been as a government-sanctioned monopoly.

ATT is no longer in existence, except as a brand. Even their "T" has been delisted from the NYSE.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Ted Striker


I remember posting about that about 3 years ago, asking "how the hell do they STILL stay in business." To which Sten replied, "because they're a BANK now." I'm still not sure what Sten meant, maybe they tried dabbling on the financial investments side. (Trying to copy General Electric's success there).

He meant GMAC, the financing division of GM.

[JohnT]

To be fair the backbone of AT&T's business was local telephone service which was taken away from it by anti-trust courts. It was a strong healthy company until it had courts take away it's core business. GM won't die because the politicians won't let a company which still amounts to 1% of US GDP go down. With luck the down grading of the company's credit rating, the $2 billion FIAT debacle, and the rivers of red ink will make share holders act up and kick out the current management.

Don't forget that the very same thing happened in 1992/93 when the Board rose up against CEO Bob Stempel and his VP Lloyd Ruess (and a few others). There was a period of time there when one of the directors, Bob Sayle of P&G (from memory, so I might not have the name exactly right), was in charge of GM.

[JohnT]

You want to see a truly unprofessional looking document? Check out the 8-K that prompted this thread in the first place. (PDF document.) After the first few pages, it looks like PowerPoint presentation put together by a grad student!

Their 10-K, otoh, is more up to snuff. But that 8-K looks like it was cobbled together over a weekend.

[KrazyHorse]

Who cares what their document looks like?

This just enforces the idea that business people are useless...

[JohnT]

[Ted Striker]

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[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by JohnT

Thought put into appearance is thought taken away from useful activities

[DanS]

Appearance is important, but simple and clear are the most important aspects of appearance.

The 8-K looks like it is just a results powerpoint that GM put into an 8-K for some reason. It looks fine to me.

[Ted Striker]

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[JohnT]

Originally posted by DanS
Appearance is important, but simple and clear are the most important aspects of appearance.

The 8-K looks like it is just a results powerpoint that GM put into an 8-K for some reason. It looks fine to me.

For an official SEC filing the thing looks amateurish and not something put together by a company with $100billion+ in annual revenues. Read a few books on the culture of GM and you'll realize that such a thing wouldn't have flown in Sloan's (or even Roger Smiths) day.

[DanS]

Normally, results powerpoints aren't put into an 8-K, but for some reason this one was. This is about par for the course for results powerpoints. It's not a problem, IMHO.

[JohnT]

Oh, I know it's not a "problem."

But for a company that once used to use different colored paper in its presentation binders to indicate various sections (for easy reference - "turn to the first blue page"), it's a step down and an indication of a certain laxness that could be permeating the entire corporate culture.

[Ted Striker]

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[Ted Striker]

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