GM: Who bought Hummer?
General Motors found a buyer for its line of gas guzzlers despite falling sales
General Motors doesn't have to worry about the gas-guzzling Hummer any more, said Jay Yarow in The Business Insider. A day after filing for bankruptcy, GM announced an agreement to sell the Hummer brand to an unnamed buyer at an unnamed price. Sales of Hummers—originally designed as military vehicles—have fallen "off a cliff," with no big recovery in sight, so "we're curious as to who would want to buy this line."
GM isn't telling, said Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times, but sources say the buyer is Chinese firm Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery. And guessing a ballpark price is easy enough—GM received indications last summer that it could sell Hummer for $500 million. "But car sales across the nation have plunged in the last year, so it’s likely that the Hummer unit, which began as a civilian version of the military Humvee, would draw a smaller offer now."
One thing's for sure, said Christopher Hinton in MarketWatch. Hummer is just the beginning. GM owes creditors $172 billion, but has just $82 billion in assets. The company plans to sell off Saab, Pontiac, and Saturn—with would-be buyers already kicking the tires—in order to emerge from bankruptcy in three months as a leaner, more competitive company.
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