Chief Executive Fritz Henderson

General Motors Corp., shrinking operations as it reorganizes in bankruptcy, will offer buyouts and retirement incentives to eliminate about 4,000 salaried jobs in the U.S. by Oct. 1. Involuntary cuts will be needed if the Detroit automaker gets too few volunteers, a GM spokesman said. The reductions will pare the salaried workforce by about 15%, deepening Chief Executive Fritz Henderson's plans to slash a U.S. non-union payroll that had 29,650 jobs at the start of 2009. In April, GM projected cutting to 26,250 positions, and the new buyouts would trim the total to 23,500.

General Motors Co. filed a registration for a public stock offering Wednesday, barely a year after the top U.S. automaker emerged from bankruptcy protection. These are the key events since GM's bankruptcy filing. June 2009 — General Motors files for a bankruptcy reorganization supported by U.S. government funding and announces plans to shed brands. July 2009 — GM emerges from bankruptcy with four core brands and is majority owned by the U.S. government. July 2009 — The U.S. Treasury designates Dan Akerson, David Bonderman, Robert Krebs and Patricia Russo to GM's board.

General Motors Co. filed a registration for a public stock offering Wednesday, barely a year after the top U.S. automaker emerged from bankruptcy protection. These are the key events since GM's bankruptcy filing. June 2009 — General Motors files for a bankruptcy reorganization supported by U.S. government funding and announces plans to shed brands. July 2009 — GM emerges from bankruptcy with four core brands and is majority owned by the U.S. government. July 2009 — The U.S. Treasury designates Dan Akerson, David Bonderman, Robert Krebs and Patricia Russo to GM's board.

General Motor Co.'s vice chairman, Bob Lutz, came to the Los Angeles Auto Show primed to talk about the company's Chevy Volt, its electric vehicle rolling out next year. But the only thing anyone wanted to talk about Wednesday was this week's surprise resignation of Chief Executive Fritz Henderson. Though Lutz gamely tried to dodge questions about the leadership vacuum, by day's end he had broken down a bit, revealing that the next person to take the job would probably be a outsider.

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Fritz Henderson stepped down today, signaling continued turmoil over turnaround efforts at the troubled automaker. Board chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. will temporarily take over the CEO spot until a permanent replacement is found, GM said. "We all agreed more changes were needed," Whitacre said to reporters in a press conference in Detroit. Henderson, a longtime GM veteran, was named to the top executive job in March, following the removal of his predecessor, Rick Wagoner, at the hands of the Obama administration.

General Motors Co. is making progress in restructuring its operations three months after emerging from bankruptcy, the automaker's top executive said today, although turnover continues to afflict the company's upper management with the departure of North American sales chief Mark LaNeve. Chief Executive Fritz Henderson, who has been running GM since former CEO Rick Wagoner was ousted by the Obama administration in March, said the company has made progress in cleaning up its balance sheet, winning customer acceptance of new vehicle models and reducing costs by closing factories and cutting workers, and cleaning up its balance sheet since it exited bankruptcy in July.

Borrowing a page from the playbooks of Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, General Motors Co. is moving to repay its federal loans early. The bailed-out automaker announced a third-quarter loss of $1.15 billion Monday, but it said its cash flow had been strong enough to allow it to pay back $1.2 billion to the U.S. and Canadian governments next month. The better-than-expected performance, GM executives said, came in part because of sales growth in developing markets such as China, as well as large cost reductions taken during its trip through bankruptcy over the summer.

General Motor Co.'s vice chairman, Bob Lutz, came to the Los Angeles Auto Show primed to talk about the company's Chevy Volt, its electric vehicle rolling out next year. But the only thing anyone wanted to talk about Wednesday was this week's surprise resignation of Chief Executive Fritz Henderson. Though Lutz gamely tried to dodge questions about the leadership vacuum, by day's end he had broken down a bit, revealing that the next person to take the job would probably be a outsider.

Although shares of General Motors Corp. have almost certainly been made worthless by the carmaker's entry into Chapter 11, the stock's price actually resurged from its lows Monday. At a news conference after the bankruptcy filing Monday, GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said existing common shareholders would lose their investment "in entirety." But GM shares, after plunging to 27 cents when the market opened, jumped as high as $1.01. They closed at 75 cents, unchanged from Friday's close.

The abrupt resignation of General Motors Co. Chief Executive Fritz Henderson, who stepped down after just eight months in the top job, signals a push by the automaker's board to speed the pace of change at the struggling company. Shock from Tuesday's announcement quickly reverberated throughout the industry, which had interpreted improving financial news out of GM as a sign that the company had begun to turn around under Henderson's watch. The timing was doubly surprising considering the fact that Henderson had been slated to make the keynote speech opening the Los Angeles Auto Show today.

Borrowing a page from the playbooks of Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, General Motors Co. is moving to repay its federal loans early. The bailed-out automaker announced a third-quarter loss of $1.15 billion Monday, but it said its cash flow had been strong enough to allow it to pay back $1.2 billion to the U.S. and Canadian governments next month. The better-than-expected performance, GM executives said, came in part because of sales growth in developing markets such as China, as well as large cost reductions taken during its trip through bankruptcy over the summer.

General Motors Co. is making progress in restructuring its operations three months after emerging from bankruptcy, the automaker's top executive said today, although turnover continues to afflict the company's upper management with the departure of North American sales chief Mark LaNeve. Chief Executive Fritz Henderson, who has been running GM since former CEO Rick Wagoner was ousted by the Obama administration in March, said the company has made progress in cleaning up its balance sheet, winning customer acceptance of new vehicle models and reducing costs by closing factories and cutting workers, and cleaning up its balance sheet since it exited bankruptcy in July.

General Motors Corp., shrinking operations as it reorganizes in bankruptcy, will offer buyouts and retirement incentives to eliminate about 4,000 salaried jobs in the U.S. by Oct. 1. Involuntary cuts will be needed if the Detroit automaker gets too few volunteers, a GM spokesman said. The reductions will pare the salaried workforce by about 15%, deepening Chief Executive Fritz Henderson's plans to slash a U.S. non-union payroll that had 29,650 jobs at the start of 2009. In April, GM projected cutting to 26,250 positions, and the new buyouts would trim the total to 23,500.