TTAC has intercepted a memo from GM PR Spinmeister-in-Chief Steve Harris to the troops. [Full text of missive after the jump.] In the message, Harris advises GM employees to tune-in to the internal TV channel for an announcement from GM CEO Rick Wagoner and COO Fritz Henderson (former CFO and Harvard MBAs both) that will “share third quarter results and tell employees about important changes to our business to address the challenges brought on by the volatile global economic situation.” At this point, we have no idea what’s going down (other than GM’s cash reserves, stock price, credit-worthiness, etc.). Our best guess is the one we made for Monday (which didn’t materialize as predicted): a few GM brands are about about to go away. But it could be the GM Chrysler merger. Or… I dunno. Anyone with a lead can email me at robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com or place their idle speculation below.
Please plan on viewing GM’s Third Quarter Business Update broadcast at 11 a.m. on Friday, November 7. Rick Wagoner, chairman and CEO, and Fritz Henderson, president and chief operating officer, will share third quarter results and tell employees about important changes to our business to address the challenges brought on by the volatile global economic situation. The broadcast will last approximately one hour. Since GMNA results will be discussed during this meeting, GMNA will not hold a separate broadcast.
The broadcast will be shown on our internal TV network (Channel 55 for the RenCen, Tech Center and PPC; Channel 5 for all other locations.) Employees can view the broadcast in the Dome and are encouraged to watch this message live and visit Global Socrates for related materials later in the day.
Steve Harris
Vice President
GM Global Communications
So, basically, is it a bailout, bankruptcy, or a merger?
Well, the bailout it won’t be. I don’t think, anyway. It would make sense with Obama having won the Presidency just yesterday, but this would make stock prices rise, and so it wouldn’t make sense for GM to announce it on a day right before the stock market closes.
Bankruptcy would be the logical choice for Wagoner to take, but it’s doubtful he’ll take it with the upcoming Obama administration.
So, GM-Chrysler merger it is. They’ll make it for the end of Friday so their stock won’t immediately tank.
Might those “important changes” involve the number 11?
I sat through a lot of those broadcasts in my career. The only one that had anything remotely close to “important” was when they announced the pension plan was being frozen. :-(
By the time anything of significance is communicated to the masses via official channels, it’s old news on the internet.
Is that also a conference call with Wall Street? I sometimes listen to the Sales and Production calls… this might be worth dialling into.
Maybe I should buy 10 shares of GM now and cash in big late Friday afternoon?
Isn’t it more likely that they’ll be giving everyone a few extra weeks of time off in December? With all their product plans on hold, who needs engineers, designers, shipping, testing, etc?
Shutting things down for a month would do a lot to keep the cash conflagration from getting worse.
NETRUN WROTE:
Isn’t it more likely that they’ll be giving everyone a few extra weeks of time off in December? With all their product plans on hold, who needs engineers, designers, shipping, testing, etc?
Shutting things down for a month would do a lot to keep the cash conflagration from getting worse.
That was my first thought, however, with so many product plans on hold, perhaps the “vacation” will be more extensive. Like….I dunno…. until GM gets some cash from Washington.
Important changes…you, you, you, and those 10,000 of you, you’re fired.
I don’t think it’s a merger. That ship appears to have sailed. Hopefully, Red Ink Rick will announce his resignation.
“We find it’s always better to fire people on a Friday. Studies have statistically shown that there’s less chance of an incident if you do it at the end of the week. ” – Office Space
It won’t be C11. Hope, Change, and Bailout just won the election. GM wants its government cheese.
It’ll be the usual spin fest, tough market conditions, layoffs, restructuring, nothing new, nothing risky, nothing innovative. ie. business as usual.
Maybe announce the sale of something…heavy/medium trucks?…or…like all the office visitor chairs to drum up some cash and then installing stationary bikes tied to micro electrical generators for all employees who aren’t working but are getting paid anyways. To hell with cars, we’ll peddle our way to electrical profitability!
– Outside chance at the merger with Chrysler, seems to me we’ve have heard that they’ve found the cash by now if it was going to happen.
– Very low chance of announcing they’ve raised more credit to fund operations.
– Good chance they’ve tapped that 5 billion credit they have access too
– Minimal mention of cash reserves remaining
– someone will cut off an analyst that asks about cash remaining and burn rate, “whoops looks like I cut him off, oh this silly phone”
– 50% chance of using the word “unsustainable” in regards to GM’s business model as a precursor to layoffs
– 33% Chance that they’ll shutter a brand.
– 1% chance of announcing they will enter Chpt 11 to reorg
– 99% chance that Rick Wagoner won’t resign
– 3012 – the number of times the Volt get’s mentioned
– 0% chance that they’ll get my respect as business “leaders”
– 99% chance that Rick Wagoner won’t resign
Picard is not amused.
http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/8/8c/Doublepalm.jpg
Resignation does not imply “changes to the business”. There was a lot of press regarding death of the merger. Maybe original theory of brand consolidation is not dead and far fetched?
Resignation does not imply “changes to the business”.
Everybody here keeps railing about the status quo, and Red Ink Rick is pretty much keeping the status quo when changes are needed, knowwhati’msayin’?
“In order to save money, we have decided to discontinue stupid money-wasting measures like having our own tv station…”
@guyincognito
That was funny. Well done!
I’m thinking GM is going to hire McCain as a lobbyist. He’s a maverick, after all.
If memory serves, the Maverick was a Ford. But, hey, that’s so crazy that it just might work!
(former CFO and Harvard MBAs both)—-So is George W. Bush by the way.
Important changes = Cutting off a few of GM’s brands by such and such date?
..important changes to our business to address the challenges brought on by the volatile global economic situation.
Oh FFS stop blaming the economy for your situation that you foddered with crappy product!
love the sinking ship pictures
just waiting for “all aboard the FAILBOAT” next.
“Important Changes to our Business” better mean firing Rick or closing the doors at this point.
No chance they’ll be announcing the NA production of a direct replacement for the ION ???
Seriously: I think it’s to announce brand cuts, the amount of red ink lost for the current period and for spinning the bad news into comedy gold.
What can they say? “The turnaround plan is working as designed”[a quote familiar to a lot of GM customers].
GM is buying Kelvinator, and will resume building refrigerators at a later date. I think. Oh, and they will stop building cars and trucks at the same time.
rumor mill says across the board paycuts of 9-15%…
rumor mill says across the board paycuts of 9-15%…
Does that include management, or are the blue-collar workers screwed again?
# Mike the loser :
November 5th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
(former CFO and Harvard MBAs both)—-So is George W. Bush by the way.
Barck Obama is also a graduate of Harvard. I thought Bush went to Yale like Kerry? But the big O’s degree is in law (worse IMO).
Nothing big, or it would have leaked by now.
rumor mill says across the board paycuts of 9-15%…
Does that include management, or are the blue-collar workers screwed again?
Dunno just what a friend said is the water cooler talk in there.
Holy crap – Jalopnik’s got a little birdie singing that the Volt is on hold.
Richard Chen:
If true, GM’s fucked. There should be a shareholder revolt…
Holy crap – Jalopnik’s got a little birdie singing that the Volt is on hold.
Well, that raises two points:
One: Fair enough, they didn’t want–and probably didn’t intend–to build it anyway. With fuel prices dropping they have their chance to do so without looking quite so bad.
Two: All the products they need to build to weather economic downturns more effectively are getting canned or delayed. The Volt, Cruze, Malibu and Beat are effective no-shows, but we can bet on low-volume turkeys like the Saab 9-4. GM is all but admitting defeat if they’re shuttering the bread-and-butter products.