Archive for the ‘bailout’ Category

The first time John McCain ran for the U.S. presidency, his aggressive, occasionally angry style didn't sit well with voters. As we saw in 2008, he's managed to dial it down a bit during public debates, but the senator is still as feisty as ever. Yesterday, he told the press that Chrysler is doomed, despite receiving government support to the tune of $15 billion. Said McCain: "anybody believes that Chrysler is going to survive, I'd like to meet them". We'll see if he offers any analysis of the other bankrupt kid on the block, GM, and its third-quarter financials today. [DetNews]

It's been a busy day for General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson. Not only did he reveal GM's third quarter financials, but he also announced the company's souped-up plan to repay $6.7 billion in loans from the U.S. government. While the financial report was reasonably upbeat (the company ended Q3 $1.2 billion in the red, but that's an improvement on analysts' $2.5 billion loss estimate), the real attention-grabber was GM's aggressive loan repayment plan: the company will now cough up $1 billion at the close of each quarter, beginning in December 2009. At that rate, GM's debt should be fully erased by July 2011 -- far ahead of the 2015 date...

General Motors may be looking to expand its (formerly) shrinking U.S. network, but the soon-to-be owner of GM's orphaned Saab is sticking with a leaner, meaner game plan: Koenigsegg intends to nix 81 Saab dealers from the company's current network, leaving just 137 outlets in the U.S. Of course, there's still a chance that the entire deal could go south (it's happened before), which would shutter all 218. But hey, it's Friday, and we're feeling optimistic about this one.  [AutoEvolution]