GM Posts $9.6 Billion Q4 Loss
General Motors has finally announced their fourth quarter results and its terminal. The ailing American automaker’s cash burn was a staggering $6.2 billion. That might have a little something to do with the fact that GM’s revenues shrank by 34.2 percent, from $46.8 billion to $30.8 billion. Q4 operating loss: $5.9B. Net loss: $9.6B (compared to a not inconsequential $1.5B a year previous). For those of you keeping score, today’s results mark GM’s fourth year without booking a profit and the second largest loss in GM’s entire history. Reacting to the carnage, the man at the helm recycled a press release from somewhere in the middle of this slide into bankruptcy. “2008 was an extremely difficult year for the U.S. and global auto markets,” CEO Rick Wagoner said in a statement. “We expected these challenging conditions will continue through 2009, and so we are accelerating our restructuring actions.” At GM, restructuring actions accelerate you. Nose first. Pro forma mea minimus culpa filed, Red Ink Rick is headed to DC with his well-worn begging bowl . . .
The man with a plan—cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut—will share his vision with the Presidential Task Force on Automobiles. Wagoner’s looking for—ready?—another $16.6 billion.
That’s a genuine concern for anyone who isn’t already laughing/crying. In fact, Bloomberg wonders if GM is still, legally, a “going concern.”
GM said its 2008 annual report is likely to include a “going concern” opinion from auditors, a signal of doubt about the company’s future viability. That decision hasn’t been made yet, Chief Financial Officer Ray Young said on a conference call with reporters.
“We don’t know if we’re going to receive additional government funding,” Young said. “That’s the reason we objectively put the statement in the press release.”
Quite why anyone would believe a word coming out of GM these days is an open question. The company’s failed CEO is back at the trough after borrowing your tax money against his “worst case scenario” for all of 2009. Which didn’t even last from December to the end of March.
Closed door session? Of course.
More by Robert Farago
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