Robert C Stempel

General Motors, traditionally dominated by its U.S. auto business, is now counting on its European and other international operations to generate much of its growth for the 1990s, company executives indicated Wednesday. GM officials hinted at further cutbacks in the firm's struggling U.S. car operations but said they expect to expand the firm's auto-making capacity in the booming Western European market--where GM is already a major player--by 25% over the next five years.

Two former giants of the auto industry, who helped bring millions of gas-guzzling vehicles to market, are teaming up to promote electric bicycles, scooters and souped-up golf carts. Lee Iacocca, former chairman of Chrysler Corp., and Robert Stempel, former chairman of General Motors Corp., said Tuesday that they are joining forces to introduce a line of small, lightweight electric vehicles. "This is the changing of the guard," said the 73-year-old Iacocca.

Hollywood won't have the Roger of "Roger and Me" to kick around any more. Roger B. Smith, General Motors' controversial chairman who has unwittingly become best known to the general public as the absent target of Michael Moore's savagely satirical film "Roger and Me," announced Tuesday that he will turn over control of the world's largest industrial company to Robert C. Stempel.

GM Ex-Chairman Stempel Has Heart Surgery: Robert C. Stempel, former chairman of General Motors Corp., underwent elective heart surgery at a suburban Detroit hospital and is resting comfortably, a GM spokesman said. The spokesman, Bruce MacDonald, said Stempel is listed in good condition, "although it is too soon to know how long he will be in the hospital." GM's board of directors forced Stempel, 59, to resign Oct. 26 as chairman for failing to act quickly enough to stem GM's record losses.

General Motors Corp. has scheduled a news conference in Detroit this morning at which officials are expected to announce that Robert C. Stempel will succeed Roger B. Smith as the chairman of the world's largest industrial company. Stempel is currently president of GM. Smith, who has run GM for a decade, is scheduled to take mandatory retirement in August and has been preparing the line of succession for months.

GM Ex-Chairman Stempel Has Heart Surgery: Robert C. Stempel, former chairman of General Motors Corp., underwent elective heart surgery at a suburban Detroit hospital and is resting comfortably, a GM spokesman said. The spokesman, Bruce MacDonald, said Stempel is listed in good condition, "although it is too soon to know how long he will be in the hospital." GM's board of directors forced Stempel, 59, to resign Oct. 26 as chairman for failing to act quickly enough to stem GM's record losses.

The tenures of GM's past two chairmen were marked by declining market share, record losses and extensive plant closings and layoffs. GM under Roger B. Smith, chairman, 1981-1990: * Modernized its aging manufacturing and technological base. * Introduced the Saturn to compete with the Japanese. * Set an industry record by earning $4.86 billion in 1988, but little was contributed by the ailing U.S. car operations. * Lost 12% market share because of weak products.

GM Execs Sold Stocks Just Before Price Tumble: General Motors Corp. executives sold thousands of shares of stock shortly before the price fell by more than 3%, the company acknowledged. But the auto maker denied any wrongdoing. It confirmed that Chairman Robert C. Stempel sold 12,800 shares of GM common stock at $40.88 a share and 9,850 shares of GM Class E stock at $51.38 a share Aug. 7. Combined, the sales brought Stempel slightly more than $1 million.

In his first public remarks since returning to Detroit from last week's presidential trade visit to Japan, General Motors Corp. Chairman Robert C. Stempel on Sunday sought to cast a positive spin on the trip, praising the improved U.S. government-industry relations that it appeared to herald. But the leader of the world's largest auto producer cautioned that the Japanese market was still largely closed to U.S.

As General Motors Corp. awaited a new leader Thursday, its old one reported a narrower than expected loss of $753 million for the third quarter and said that figure and other measures prove the ailing company is getting better. But the scope of GM's loss compared to its competitors underscored the woes that led to this week's boardroom revolt that toppled Chairman and Chief Executive Robert C. Stempel.

Sources close to General Motors Corp. said Monday that the board of directors' putsch against Robert C. Stempel's management, led by John G. Smale, 65, retired chairman of Procter & Gamble, is strongly supported by directors Dennis Weatherstone, 61, chairman of the New York bank J. P. Morgan & Co., and Thomas H. Wyman, 62, former chairman of CBS Inc. J. Willard Marriott Jr., 60, chairman of Marriott Corp.

The forced resignation of General Motors Corp. Chairman Robert C. Stempel has cleared the way for a new management team to carry out the radical transformation widely viewed as essential for the auto maker's survival. The two men most likely to lead the accelerated effort to turn around the company, analysts said Monday, are John G. Smale and John F. Smith Jr., both of whom have been working largely behind the scenes to transform the company since April.

The tenures of GM's past two chairmen were marked by declining market share, record losses and extensive plant closings and layoffs. GM under Roger B. Smith, chairman, 1981-1990: * Modernized its aging manufacturing and technological base. * Introduced the Saturn to compete with the Japanese. * Set an industry record by earning $4.86 billion in 1988, but little was contributed by the ailing U.S. car operations. * Lost 12% market share because of weak products.

The curtain fell on an era at General Motors Corp. on Monday when Robert C. Stempel, 59, saying he hoped to end the "chaos" engulfing the world's largest company, resigned as chairman and chief executive under intense pressure from the board of directors.

The world's largest company seemed suspended in midair Thursday, the center of a maelstrom stirred by its own struggle for recovery in a climate of confusion, anger, finger-pointing and plummeting morale. The storm is the argument over how to reinvent General Motors Corp., a bellwether of American competitiveness fallen on very hard times, and who should be in charge. This week, it is not clear whether anyone is. At the storm's eye is Robert C.

Sources close to General Motors Corp. said Monday that the board of directors' putsch against Robert C. Stempel's management, led by John G. Smale, 65, retired chairman of Procter & Gamble, is strongly supported by directors Dennis Weatherstone, 61, chairman of the New York bank J. P. Morgan & Co., and Thomas H. Wyman, 62, former chairman of CBS Inc. J. Willard Marriott Jr., 60, chairman of Marriott Corp.

Embattled General Motors Chairman Robert C. Stempel denied any knowledge of an effort by GM's board to displace him and said in a public appearance here Wednesday that he hasn't been asked to step down. But to the frustration of GM officials, none of the unnamed directors reportedly urging the 59-year-old Stempel to retire from atop the ailing industrial firm stepped forward publicly to voice support for him. "The silence is deafening," admitted a GM manager.

Embattled General Motors Chairman Robert C. Stempel denied any knowledge of an effort by GM's board to displace him and said in a public appearance here Wednesday that he hasn't been asked to step down. But to the frustration of GM officials, none of the unnamed directors reportedly urging the 59-year-old Stempel to retire from atop the ailing industrial firm stepped forward publicly to voice support for him. "The silence is deafening," admitted a GM manager.

The outsiders who control the General Motors Corp. board of directors want Chairman Robert Stempel to step down within the next month, but they are still debating who will succeed him, board and management sources said Tuesday. The consensus that Stempel should go reflects the concern of the outside directors, who are not part of the company's management, over the decline in the financial condition of the world's largest corporation.