This is the fourth largest bankruptcy filing in the USA and the largest for an industrial company. The world as we know it is changing. This story is taken  from the New York Times.


G.M. Files for Bankruptcy Protection
June 1, 2009, 8:07 am

GM

General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, a humbling fate for the longtime titan of American industry.

The bankruptcy filing, which includes G.M.’s Saturn unit, is a means to a government-sponsored reorganization that would slim the carmaker down by selling its most desirable assets to a new entity that would be majority owned by American taxpayers.

G.M. said in its filing that it had $82.3 billion in assets and $172.8 billion in debts, including $26.3 billion in unsecured debt held by more than 500 creditors. Its largest creditors were listed as the Wilmington Trust Company, representing holders of nearly $22.8 billion of bond debt, and affiliates of the United Auto Workers union, representing nearly $20.6 billion in employee obligations.

The case was assigned to Robert E. Gerber of the Federal Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Manhattan. Before joining the bench in 2000, Mr. Gerber was a partner at the law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, specializing in bankruptcy.