New GM CEO: Bankruptcy not 'off the table' David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Sunday April 5, 2009





Print This Email This Frederick "Fritz" Henderson, the new CEO of General Motors, believes that bankruptcy for the automaker can't be ruled "off the table."



Henderson, who was named to his position last week on an interim basis after Rick Wagoner stepped down at the request of the Obama administration, told CNN's John King on Sunday that so far he has been making decisions about plant closings and retoolings, aiming to make the company more efficient.



"You sound so much more open to bankruptcy than your predecessor," King remarked, noting that Wagoner had feared that bankruptcy "would result in liquidation of the company."



"You can't rule options off the table," Henderson replied. "So you basically say, 'We'll spend time to try to get it done outside of bankruptcy, but if we can't, we're not going to compromise our goals. We'll get it done inside of a bankruptcy.'"



GM has been given 60 days by the Obama administration to rewrite its viability plan before having to decide on bankruptcy.



The Wall Street Journal expressed skepticism last week that Henderson would prove capable of departing from the automaker's past policies, writing, "If the Obama administration was looking for radical change at the top of General Motors, it probably wont get it with Fritz Henderson, the companys chief operating officer who is succeeding Rick Wagoner. Henderson, after all, is a GM company man who has never worked anywhere else. And, for much of his career, he has been one of Wagoners golden boys."



In his appearance on CNN, however, Henderson appeared anxious to signal a break from his predecessor. When King pointed out that the Obama administration appears to feel strongly that bankruptcy would be "a cleaner solution," Henderson responded, "If it's required, that's what we'll do."



Henderson concluded by vowing that with or without bankruptcy, "We will change, we will be fundamentally different going forward, and the company's going to be reinvented."





This video is from CNN's State of the Union, broadcast Apr. 5, 2009.









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