Backgrounder: General Motors Corporation

BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- General Motors Corporation (GM), one of the world's largest automakers, was founded in 1908 by William Durant.

With its global headquarters in Detroit, the United States, GM manufactures cars and trucks in 34 countries, employs 244,000 people in the world, including 54,000 in the United States, and has a total of 500,000 retirees.

The GM, which holds a string of brands such as Buick, Cadillace, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling, sells and services in some 140 countries. The company's largest national market is the United States, followed by China, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Russia and German.

In recent years, the GM has been facing some management troubles such as high labor cost, insufficient investment in R&D, and a rigid system. Its operating plight deepened in 2008 amid dwindling global auto sales due to the current financial crisis sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. last September.

In 2008, the GM sold 8.35 million cars and trucks globally, a decrease of nearly 1 million compared with the previous year. The company has lost 31 billion U.S. dollars in the year, which incurred a total of 82 billion dollars in the past four years.

The GM has been struggling to stay afloat in the past seven months, and applied for a government loan to avoid bankruptcy protection. The U.S. government has already injected 19.4 billion dollars in loans.

The GM has total assets of 82 billion dollars as of March 31. Currently, the company is considering a restructuring plan, and will sell four brands -- Saab, Saturn, HUMMER and Pontiac, and stick with four others so as to ride out the crisis and make profits again.