Done Deal: GM Out of Bankruptcy

As of 6:30 this morning, the new General Motors is on its way: The old firm sold its good assets to a new automaker backed by the government via a bankruptcy overhaul far speedier than experts expected, the New York Times reports. The new firm, Vehicle Acquisition Company, will soon be renamed General Motors. At an upbeat Detroit press conference 3 hours later, GM CEO Fritz Henderson promised to turn the impressive "speed and intensity" of the reorganization to making great cars.

The new, smaller GM will be 61% owned by the US; Canada and the United Auto Workers will hold the rest of shares. Now the hard part starts, the Times notes, as the company battles poor sales and adapts to a much smaller market share. The US will have pumped $50 billion into GM by year’s end; the government hopes it can go public again next year. “We are here to get the government out of the auto business,” says the US auto chief.