GM Posts $9.6 Billion 4th-Quarter Loss

[Earth_First]

Source: Bloomberg

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., surviving on $13.4 billion in U.S. aid, reported a $9.6 billion fourth- quarter loss as Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner prepared to ask the Treasury for more cash to get through the year.

The deficit was $15.71 a share, wider than the year-earlier net loss of $1.5 billion, or $2.70, the biggest U.S. automaker said today in a statement. GM posted an annual loss of $30.9 billion, the second largest in its 100-year history.

“The size of the loss matters not only because it impacts what it will cost to restructure the company, but also the kind of bill for which the taxpayer is on the hook,” said John Casesa, a managing partner at consultant Casesa Shapiro Group in New York. “Conditions in this quarter could not have been worse.”

GM lost $38.7 billion in 2007, including a $38.3 billion third-quarter charge for tax accounting because of ongoing losses.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aBldNfJ_zYhI&refer=home

[jus_the_facts]

1. They could STOP advertising and save millions..their products are all over the roads...etc.....

...really NO need to spend anything on advertisements.

[bif]

3. Then people like me in advertising lose their jobs.

That's why I've been out of work for 4 years, because of cutbacks in car advertising spending.

[BR_Parkway]

2. Can someone explain this to a non-financial person?

GM lost $38.7 billion in 2007, including a $38.3 billion third-quarter charge for tax accounting because of ongoing losses.

As stupid as this is going to sound - it looks like that they actually lost .4 billion for the year and did some accounting mumbo-jumbo for the rest of it. How much of that is real money vs the tricks companies use to pocket cash while reporting tax losses to get out of paying income tax?