General Motors has filed for bankruptcy protection in New York in the third-largest Chapter 11 case in US history.
The court filing had been widely anticipated after Obama administration officials said yesterday that the automaker would be taking the action before financial markets opened.
Based on its end-March assets of $82bn (€57.6bn), the GM bankruptcy ranked behind only Lehman Brothers and WorldCom in terms of size.
GM said in a submission with its bankruptcy filing that its board of directors had voted on Sunday to approve the move to seek court protection in a reorganisation that will be funded by an additional $30bn (€21bn) from the US government.
The US Treasury plans to provide $50bn (€35.1bn) in financing to GM and take a 60% stake in a reorganised company.
The US government will fund a new company created to buy GM's best assets out of bankruptcy under a fast-track plan that officials hope to complete by the end of August.
Judge Robert Gerber of the US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan was assigned to handle the automaker's bankruptcy, expected to be one of the most complex such cases ever to be heard in the federal courts.
