General Motors (US)

Once a giant on the world stage, General Motors has been struggling for almost a year to avoid falling off the edge altogether into oblivion. At its peak, the company had a presence in over 200 countries, including manufacturing operations in almost 50. It also managed an extensive portfolio housing several of America's most celebrated automobile marques, including Cadillac, Chevrolet, Saturn and Buick. As recently as 1980 almost one out of every two new cars sold in America were made by General Motors, and its international subsidiaries included Vauxhall in the UK, Opel in Germany, Saab in Scandinavia and Holden in Australia. Yet in the harsh automotive environment of the 21st century, GM struggled to maintain its prominent position in the face of brutal competition, especially in the US, from manufacturers offering a more flexible, less gas-hungry range of cars. A catastrophic fall in sales across the whole market during 2008 left GM wrestling with the very real threat of bankruptcy by the end of the year. It was also overtaken for the first time in its history as the global #1 by rival Toyota. In June 2009, GM finally accepted defeat and filed for Chapter 11 protection. It will be radically restructured and hopes to emerge before the end of the year with the US and Canadian governments as its controlling shareholders. Advertising Age estimated global measured advertising expenditure of $3.3bn in 2007, making GM the world's #4 advertiser.  

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General Motors website

Chevrolet	Onstar
Buick	GM Powertrain
Saturn	Oldsmobile
Cadillac	Hummer
Saab	GMAC
Suzuki	GMC
Isuzu	The GM Card
ACDelco	Pontiac

Holden (Australia)	GM Daewoo (Korea)
Opel (Germany)	Opel (Japan)
Vauxhall (UK)	General Motors Mexico

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