General Motors

General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM), also known as GM, is a United States-based automobile maker with worldwide operations and brands including Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Vauxhall.

Chevrolet and GMC divisions produce trucks, as well as passenger vehicles. Other brands include AC Delco and Allison Transmission. GM also has a 8% stake in Isuzu and a 3% stake in Suzuki in Japan and a joint venture with AvtoVAZ in Russia. In December 2003, it acquired Delta in South Africa, in which it had taken a 45 % stake in 1997, and which is now a fully-owned subsidiary, General Motors South Africa. General Motors is also a majority shareholder (50.9%) in GM Daewoo.

GM's headquarters are in the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. The company is the world's largest vehicle manufacturer and employs over 340,000 people. In 2001, GM sold 8.5 million vehicles through all its branches; in 2002, GM sold 15 % of all cars and trucks in the world. They also owned Electronic Data Systems from 1984 to 1996 and, prior to selling it to News Corporation, DirecTV. GM owned Frigidaire from 1918 to 1979.

History

General Motors (GM) was founded in 1908 in Flint, Michigan as a holding company for Buick, then controlled by William C. Durant, and acquired Oldsmobile later that year. The next year, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, and Oakland. In 1909, General Motors acquired the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessor of GMC Truck. A Rapid became the first truck to conquer Pikes Peak in 1909.

During the 1920s and 1930s, General Motors bought out the bus company Yellow Coach, helped create Greyhound bus lines, replaced intercity train transport with buses, and established subsidiary companies to buy out streetcar companies and replace the rail-based services with buses. GM formed United Cities Motor Transit in 1932 (see General Motors streetcar conspiracy for additional details).

General Motors bought the internal combustion engined railcar builder Electro-Motive Corporation and its engine supplier Winton Engine in 1930, renaming both as the General Motors Electro-Motive Division. Over the next twenty years, diesel-powered locomotives and trains – the majority built by GM – largely replaced other forms of traction on American railroads. (During World War II, these engines were also important in American submarines and destroyer escorts.) Electro-Motive was sold in early 2005.