A Tale Of Two Akersons: Was He For Keeping Opel, Or Was He Against?

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Legs of RenCen executives must be covered with black and blue marks from kicking themselves daily for not unloading Opel when the German government offered to take the sick patient off GM’s hands. A deal, financed with $6 billion courtesy of German tax payers and a little petty cash from Russian bankers would have given GM a little money and an immediate end of the huge losses at Opel. Frankly, nobody in Germany had much hope for an Opel under Magna and the Russians either, it was seen as a hospice where to wheel the sick patient until it dies in silence, a la Saab.

At the last minute, GM changed its mind. Who made the ill-fated decision? Was Akerson for keeping Opel, or for getting rid of it?

In 2011, Reuters reported that it was most of GM’s board, with the notable exception of GM CEO Dan Akerson and another unnamed person. In Summer of 2011, Reuters wrote:

“Akerson was one of only two GM board directors who voted against keeping Opel in late 2009, believing Europe was a market of national champion automakers — VW in Germany, Fiat in Italy and Renault in France — and pan-European luxury brands like BMW and Daimler AG’s Mercedes, a person familiar with Akerson’s thinking said. Opel is neither and Akerson believed it would be a long, uphill battle to fix it.”

The matter is more complex than simple chauvinism, and Opel is seen as a national, albeit sick, champion in Germany, but the long uphill, or make that downhill battle remains.

A year later, when the New York Times looked into the matter, the story had changed. Instead of two people who had voted for unloading Opel, there were two for keeping it: Akerson and Steve Girsky. Writes the Times:

“G.M. nearly sold Opel three years ago before its reconstituted board decided to keep the business because of its integral role in the company’s global product programs. Two of the directors who championed the decision to retain Opel were Mr. Akerson and Stephen J. Girsky, the board’s vice chairman.

Now both are admitting that a turnaround in Europe has been far tougher than anticipated.”

The stories are diametrically opposed. In 2011, a whole board allegedly wanted to keep Opel, but Akerson and someone else were against. A year later, Akerson, along with Girksy, were said to have been champions of keeping Opel American.

The reporters of both stories are the best in the business. On the Reuters side, Ben Klayman has been an important part of Reuters’ Detroit-based auto team. On the New York Times side is Bill Vlasic, the NYT’s best auto industry reporter and author of Once Upon a Car, the account of the recent “fall and resurrection” of the Detroit car manufacturers. Both reporters stick to their story. The Vlasic story reflects the party line. However, the Klayman story is based on solid sources, and Klayman never received a call from GM, telling him the story was wrong, something GM usually is not shy to do.

Now there is one item that had changed: When the board voted to keep Opel, Akerson was a simple board member. He became CEO in late 2010, and it looks better is he’s firmly behind Opel.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • PrincipalDan PrincipalDan on Feb 08, 2013

    Opel (along with GM Korea) seems to still be were the majority of non-Truck engineering is being done. What was GM supposed to do if that "engineering division" (Opel) suddenly went away?

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    • PrincipalDan PrincipalDan on Feb 08, 2013

      @28-Cars-Later I know that "buy American" and "brand loyalty" seem to be outdated, out molded concepts, but what if GM decieded to bring all engineering to the states and try to sell the cars from that angle? "Engineered in the USA." Seems stronger than "Chevy Runs Deep" or "The New Class of World Class".

  • Seth1065 Seth1065 on Feb 10, 2013

    I hate to do it but let's give GM the benefit of the doubt here, maybe it is an accounting issue, maybe a union issue, who knows but they have smart people at GM how many ??? No idea, but maybe the need the Opel to do the hard lifting of engeering the cars for the us and else w,here and they have to swallow the bad sales in Europe to have. That, if they dumped Opel what was the back up plan when gas goes up to 4.25 a gallon and people downsized out of pickups and S uV' s they do not need , maybe keeping Opel was the best decision they had at the time. And no I do not own any GM product unless you count my Saab , I am more in the they have nothing that excites me to part with my cash dept.

  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
  • EBFlex The best gift would have been a huge bonfire of all the fak mustangs in inventory and shutting down the factory that makes them.Heck, nobody would even have to risk life and limb starting the fire, just park em close together and wait for the super environmentally friendly EV fire to commence.
  • Varezhka Of all the countries to complain about WTO rules violation, especially that related to battery business…
  • Carson D At 1:24 AM, the voyage data recorder (VDR) stopped recording the vessel’s system data, but it was able to continue taping audio. At 1:26 AM, the VDR resumed recording vessel system data. Three minutes later, the Dali collided with the bridge. Nothing suspicious at all. Let's go get some booster shots!
  • Darren Mertz Where's the heater control? Where's the Radio control? Where the bloody speedometer?? In a menu I suppose. How safe is that??? Volvo....
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