GM denies any more brands under review

DETROIT -- A General Motors spokesman today denied the automaker is reviewing any more brands besides Hummer for possible sale.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported today that GM could shed thousands of white-collar jobs and sell or cease producing certain brands as part of a strategy reevaluation.

The job cuts are likely to be approved when GM's board of directors meets in early August. The reduction would be in addition to earlier announced cuts. The management may also suggest options for raising additional cash to help GM make it through the downturn, and may discuss cutting certain brands, the sources said.

Both moves are part of a broader re-evaluation of GM's strategy and of its ability to meet an internal projection of returning to profitability in 2010, these people said.


GM denied the report.

"No other GM brand (besides Hummmer) is under strategic review, GM spokesman Tony Cervone said in an e-mail to Automotive News today.

GM's sales chief Mark LaNeve, made similar comments to journalists last week.

GM sells under eight different brands, but most, including Buick, Saturn and Saab, struggle to attract buyers. The company has already decided to put its Hummer division up for sale and prospective buyers are thought to include Mahindra & Mahindra.

On the job cuts, GM employs 76,000 white-collar workers globally, with the bulk of the force based in North America, said the report.

All but Cadillac and Chevrolet, which GM considers core to its business, are undergoing close scrutiny, other people said.

In the past few years, as GM has run up massive losses, some board members and some executives have on occasion raised questions about its plethora of brands, only to be rebuffed by CEO Rick Wagoner, the paper said.

The company, hit by rising oil and raw material prices, the credit crunch and the housing downturn, will need to raise as much as $15 billion (9.6 billion euros) in cash to shore up liquidity and bankruptcy is "not impossible" if the U.S. auto market continues to slump, Merrill Lynch said last week.

[Source : Automotive News .. sub req.]