General Motors to Shut Down Hummer After Failed Deal with Sichuan Tengzhong

Not able to reach agreement with Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., or rather, with the Chinese government, which refused to give its approval to the acquisition, General Motors announced it will start the process of shutting down its Hummer unit. The company said it could take several months to shutter the division.

It'll be interesting to see if something similar happens as with the Saab division of General Motors, which seemed to be on its last legs, but which ended up being acquired by Spyker Cars NV just recently.

Although Hummer has the political correct thing going against it, it also has the cool factor on its side, which makes it a prime candidate for a company with a strong brand and enough capital to infuse into the product until the economy really starts to turn around in the United States.

Some of those working on the Hummer also work on other vehicles as well, so it's not known at this time how many of the 3,000 jobs will be lost as a result of the closing of the unit.

After declaring bankruptcy and also being bailed out by billions in taxpayers' dollars in the U.S., General Motors decided to sell off four of its major U.S. brands, to being the final total to also four. The company had eight brands before they sought bankruptcy protection from their creditors.

Along with selling its Saab brand, General Motors also shut its Saturn and Pontiac divisions too. The company wants to target only its best selling product lines; the reason for selling or shutting down the others.

Although there were conflicting reports, with the Chinese government regulators saying they didn't block the deal, while other unnamed sources said they in fact refused to allow the deal to go forward. Tengzhong confirmed this when saying they couldn't receive clearance to go forward with the deal from the Chinese regulators.

Even though this deal didn't go through, General Motors made overtures to the general business world by saying they would take into account and legitimate offer while they're engaging in shutting down the brand.