General Motors, Big Three | featured news

The Treasury Department is directing General Motors to lay prepare for a bankruptcy filing by June 1, despite GM's assertion that it could still reorganize without such a filing, The New York Times reported unnamed sources as saying on Monday.

The Obama administration is seeking to ease General Motors Corp into a "controlled" bankruptcy by persuading some creditors to agree to a plan that would divide the company into two pieces, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Executives at General Motors and Chrysler are speeding to put in place workable plans to restore their dwindling operations. It’s a race they might not win.

The moves come less than an hour after Obama tells the two carmakers to take another stab at redesigning their companies, a requisite for receiving more federal funds.

Less than an hour after President Obama said a major overhaul was needed to save the auto industry, Chrysler announced that it had formed the framework of an alliance with Fiat, while at General Motors Corp., new leaders took charge after the chairman was forced to step down

President Obama is making a formal announcement this hour about his plans for troubled automakers General Motors and Chrysler, which have already been given $17.4 billion to keep them running.

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

President Barack Obama will announce the next steps to help General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC on Monday, the White House said, amid signs of progress for GM in talks aimed at slashing its debt and cutting costs in response to slack demand.

General Motors said 7,500 of its U.S. hourly workers accepted buyout offers, as the auto maker continues to shrink its operations amid heavy losses and a global slump in demand.

General Motors frequently holds up the Chevrolet Volt as a symbol of its future and a testimony to its ingenuity when it asks Washington officials for billions of dollars in federal aid.

US carmaker General Motors says it will not need the $2bn it had previously requested for March from the government.