George S. May Business Blog

Ed Whitacre speaks to the media — Blames Henderson for GM-SAIC deal

Ed Whitacre made himself available to the media today as he answered a number of questions surrounding General Motors. One of the most notable topics in question was the recent deal that sent control of GM’s most important Chinese joint venture to its partner, SAIC.

Whitacre was quick to somewhat push aside the blame, saying that the deal was put into place by Fritz Henderson, GM’s former CEO. Whitacre did note, however, that he had already met with SAIC and that we can be assured that the “nature of the partnership would change”.

We can make a guess that the rationale in the matter is the competition that lies within India’s small-car sweepstakes. Rumors are that a $3,500 sub-Spark model is apparently being planned to compliment the GM-SAIC-Wuling commercial vans that will spearhead the effort. Given how crowded India’s small car market is shaping up to be, it’s interesting that Whitacre didn’t cancel the agreement as he did with Henderson’s deal to sell Opel to Magna.

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