Who Owns General Motors?- Read More About It

Cars are often a highly fascinating topic for youngsters. There are so many companies in the market that we can talk about but lately, the vehicle business has seen too much downfall. Many companies have had their last days in our country and in the future also, there will be a few more going through the same phase. Why this happens is yet to be discovered, all we know is the market that led to the consequence. Today we’ll discuss one such company which was once among the most reputed ones and its cars are still seen on the roads. It the General Motors. In this article, we will see about ‘Who Owns General Motors?’.

Who Owns General Motors?

Who Owns General Motors?

Keeping the topic of our country aside, General motors, (also abbreviated as GM) is to date one of the renowned companies abroad. The profits and market shares are still quite high and the cars are among the top qualities. Let’s read about Who Owns General Motors.

History of General Motors

General Motors has four divisions namely Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC. Out of these four, Chevrolet was the one which was working in India. The other three are still moving in full strength in other countries. The company has launched some of the greatest cars in history and the services are still seen in bits and parts of the country. But the brand has completely taken off from our lands. Let us discuss the ownership of General Motors and how it passed from different hands but before that, we’ll get a bit into the history and other details of it.

Initial days of General Motors

The company has been working from the days when vehicles were drawn by horses, although back then the name was different. In the early 1900s, the Buick Motors was sold to Durant who further went on to name the company General Motors. It is clear that from the four divisions that the company has, Buick was the first that was inherited followed by Cadillac and GMC. Chevrolet was bought after last, in 1916, which finally led to the completion of the chain.

Late in 2013, the company faced financial issues which went far enough to become a case of bankruptcy. In a trade fair, the company sold out assets and liabilities including the trademark. All these are worth millions which took five years to get recovered. Finally, after 2010, the company started seeing profits in its sales, and gradually its financial status improved. The company now contributes to 2/3rd of the net revenue from just the sale of Chevrolet. One might wonder what is the current status in terms of actual figures, let us find out.

General Motors, Big or Small?

Starting with the profit made by the company in recent years, in the year 2019 the net revenue was around $135 Billion. The vehicle sale has increased profusely and has currently reached the mark of 10 million. This however excludes the sale in countries where it is void of function. Ever since the recovery from the Chapter 11 mishap, the company has seen a huge intake of freshers and engineers. To date, the company has around 300,000 employees and is rapidly increasing its employment with every passing day.

One may wonder if the company recruits only in the mechanical sector but that is not the case. The company has several other sectors which are in other words the backbone of the company. One such sector is Research and Development. This is the second most populated in terms of work and is the busiest department for the company. The department next in order is the marketing and sales followed by the manufacturing hub. 

The manufacturing hub has the least number of employees but the finest brains since these guys are the ones behind the on-road success of the vehicles. The investment however is highest for the R&D department. In 2020, General Motors invested as high as around $8 Billion for the R&D department. From this, it is clear how this department affects the commercial success of the name as a whole. It is visible from the company’s product range which goes up to more than 18 countries all over the world.

Thus, from the above discussion, we can conclude that General Motors is not just big but also successful in all aspects. Internal controversies and disputes are an everyday thing for companies like this so we cannot count them as factors that affect their productions.

Since its formation, the ownership has passed down to several hands due to its constant selling and reselling. There is a legit question that is going around the market as to who is the present owner of General Motors. Even the biggest corporate houses have often raised an issue with this particular topic and we as an audience can somewhat guess what led to the decline of its business in not just India but some other nations as well. Today let’s get to the depths and understand the ownership of this huge company.

Ownership hierarchy of General Motors

People who know the market must be aware of the fact that all the large firms which are ruling the production and transportation industry, are owned by shareholders. Who are these shareholders? To know about that let’s talk a bit about what shares mean. In short, every company no matter how big or small has certain shares or bits of it which they open for the general public for a buy-sell business. These portions have a price that varies almost every day based on the market statistics. 

The people are allowed to buy the bits and sell them at a price that would help them to make a profit. This is what the investment market and stocks are all about. These small parts or chunks of the company which a general person owns are called shares and the ones that deal with it are called the shareholders. This was a small summary of the market. It is not only limited to this, in fact, but the vehicle or automobile market is also just a small part of it. There are other sectors which all together make it this huge. These include commodity, equity, banking sectors, etc. 

The reason behind talking about this was, presently General Motors is also owned by three of the most successful shareholders. Although it was not always owned by individuals. In the early days, before the reorganization, the company was under the rule of the Government of the United States. The government was the only shareholder and the stocks were unavailable for the general public. Another reason behind this, during the bankruptcy, the government was the sole body that had re-invested in the company so that it could get back to normal. Soon after that incident, when the revenue started increasing the company was able to pay the debts it had, and eventually, the grip of the government broke loose. General Motors was now a free body and individuals were able to own it on their terms.

The company’s ownership now rests in the strong and able hands of M. Barra, M. L. Reuss, and D. Ammann. These individuals own a handsome proportion of the shares and have successfully executed them in all directions. Further, we’ll talk about each of them in a bit more detail.

M. Barra

Full name Mary Barra, she is the current Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Graduated from Kettering University(formerly known as the General Motors Institute) in the 1980s, Mary secured a Degree in Science specializing in Electrical Engineering. After her Bachelor’s, she went on pursuing her Degree in Business from Stanford and finally obtained the fellowship for General Motors.

In the year 2016, Mary was chosen to become the chairman of the company but due to some controversies, she didn’t accept the offer. For a matter of pride, she’s the only woman who owns the largest share of General Motors, whose exact number is around 530,000. She’s independent and in her recent interviews, she confirmed the fact that she’ll continue to be in her position for quite some years in the future.

M. L. Reuss

He’s the current executive Vice President of the company and is the second most important person after Mary. He’s a former student of Vanderbilt University and completed his master’s from Duke’s.

The man inherited the reign from his father who was the former 18th President of the company.

He’s in charge of the entire manufacturing hub and also deals with the production and marketing departments of the company.

Mark holds the second largest number of shares, which sums up to around 210,000 shares. He’s going to be in the post for the next three years after which the Presidency is likely to pass on to new hands.

D. Ammann

Don is the President and likely the third and last member of the ownership. He was appointed to the post in the same year as Mary Barra and quite enjoys his service. Previously he had the post of Mark Reuss and worked mostly in the revenue department. Now he manages all the sectors of the company as a whole. We couldn’t get much data about his early life and educational background. All we know is that he is the third-highest shareholder, with a total of 200,000 shares. He also has many years of service left in the company.

Conclusion

Now we have learnt ‘Who Owns General Motors?’, Thus we see that the company is in very efficient hands and we can expect much better performance from the company in the years to come. I hope this article was able to answer your queries. Happy Reading!

Who Owns General Motors?- Read More About It

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