General Motors
The history of GM, the world's largest automaker, saw its beginning in 1908. The company was founded by William Durant in the year 1902. The shrewd businessman that he was, Durant realized that the future lay with cars and not carriages. Initially, the company was founded as a holding company for Buick. The latter part of the year saw the company acquiring Oldsmobile, followed by the possession of Cadillac, Oakland and Elmore in the very next year.
Many of the motor companies were in dire straits during the difficult years of the early 1900's. The stock market panic in 1907 put a lot of small companies into financial distress. Many of these companies were running on credit from various bankers. This was a golden opportunity for Durant, who proceeded to buy smaller car builders, and companies that built car parts as well as car accessories. In 1908, these various companies were folded into a single unit, thus creating the new GM entity. This marked the exciting beginning of the true history of GM.
William Durant was a flamboyant businessman whose curious mix of genius and over-reaching took GM both to its heights as well as plunged it into financial distress. In 1910, bankers were forced to step in to prevent financial collapse of GM, and Durant was removed from the company he had founded. But by 1911, the company had made enough advances into the international market that the General Motors Export Company was established to handle sales outside the U.S and Canada.
Durant managed to use another company he formed, Chevrolet, to come back to power in GM during 1915, and the history of GM from 1915-1920 is full of successes. During this time, the Cadillac became wildly successful. In 1918, GM bought the operating assets of Chevrolet Motors. But, soon America was hit by a power recession and in 1920, Durant again found himself out of the company.
During the financial boom in the 1920's, the history of GM virtually glowed with success. Auto...
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