Friday, August 18, 2006

Detroit - GM HQ

GM. General Motors. 3,20,000+ employees.
Revenue in 2005 : 192 billion$. To put that into perspective, this is 2.5 times the value of India's exports (2005 f.o.b). Their headquarters, Renaissance Center, Detroit, refects this:
- 2.2 million square feet
- 73 stories
- Bought by GM in 1996 for....a piddly 72 million$. That's about 324 crore Rs....not bad...that might be piddly for the Ambanis as well!And yes, GM is also loss making as of now. Net income = -10 billion$

Interestingly, while GMs CEO had to justify his position in the face the losses, Ford's CEO, Bill Ford, has it much better. Reason: The Ford family's voting power is about 40% all investors put together. Read more here.

3 comments:

Kshitij L said...

GM is loss making? Of all the things... next we'll have MS supporting Linux nd Wal-Mart going out of business ... Who's responsible for this?

Sharan Sharma said...

Yes, sir...but to be honest, it's their first loss after 1992.

The two big reasons for the loss apparently are:
1) Rising fuel prices forcing prospective buyers to look at other low-cost options

2) The massive health-care bill that GM foots for its employees (i think includes ex-employees as well, but not sure)

Another big reason is the Delphi bankcruptcy - GM had to fund pension/other benefits for the 33,000 employees in that unit.

Sharan Sharma said...

Also, have updated the post slightly...added number of employees and a para at the end