General Motors Set to Exit Bankruptcy

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By Peter Whoriskey

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 9, 2009; 3:34 PM

General Motors officials are planning to announce the launch of "the new GM" tomorrow morning, after the automaker was cleared at noon today to emerge from bankruptcy.

A judge on Sunday night approved the sale of the company's assets to a new corporation owned largely by the United States, Canada and the United Auto Workers retiree health fund, but the order did not go into effect until today.

The court-approved sale, expected to be completed by tomorrow's announcement, will culminate a landmark government bailout.

Some critics, including some of GM's creditors, have said the company should simply have been allowed to fail.

But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Gerber wrote in a July 7 ruling that a liquidation of the company "would be a disastrous result for GM's creditors, its employees, the suppliers who depend on GM for their own existence, and the communities in which GM operates."