DETROIT – The new General Motors arose on Friday as lawyers finished an all-night paperwork session transferring the bulk of the automaker's assets to a company controlled by the U.S. government.
Once the world's largest and most powerful automaker, new GM is now cleansed of massive debt and burdensome contracts that would have sunk it without federal loans.
But the new GM also emerges amidst the worst sales slump in a quarter-century.
The massive transfer of factories, money and intellectual property was completed about 6:30 a.m., according to a person briefed on the situation, clearing the way for a smaller and faster company better equipped to compete in the brutally tough global automotive market.
Once the world's largest and most powerful automaker, new GM is now cleansed of massive debt and burdensome contracts that would have sunk it without federal loans.
But the new GM also emerges amidst the worst sales slump in a quarter-century.
The massive transfer of factories, money and intellectual property was completed about 6:30 a.m., according to a person briefed on the situation, clearing the way for a smaller and faster company better equipped to compete in the brutally tough global automotive market.