GM Shareholders Meet

GM Shareholders Meet - Remarkably Passively

Yesterday was General Motors' annual shareholders meeting. Given the events of the past year, the meeting was remarkably sedate. All of the directors were re-elected with over 96% of the vote. The shareholders did pass two non-binding corporate governance resolutions approving cumulative voting for directors and a majority voting for directors.

At the meeting, GM CEO Rick Wagoner went over a variety of cost-cutting and revenue generating steps that management has taken over the last year. The cumulative effect of the cost-cutting measures is to reduce GM's costs $7 billion per year. Just to keep this in perspective: remember, GM lost 10.5 billion last year. GM's accounting is also under fire for being overly rosy. Even Wagoner did not predict increased sales or market share in North America over the near term. Overseas, GM is doing significantly better and is at least somewhat profitable.

According to the write-up in the Detroit News, one shareholder predicted GM stock would rise (from its current mid-20s price) to $100 per share. When that happens, we might or might not have flying cars, but if we do have flying cars, there will be so many flying pigs that traffic will be jammed up there anyway.

GM Annual Meeting