GM CEO Rick Wagoner Resigns

The chairman and chief executive of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, resigned Sunday as part of a broad agreement with the Obama administration to funnel more government aid to the ailing auto giant, according to people close to the decision.

Mr. Wagoner, who has served as G.M.’s top executive since 2000, agreed to step down after it was requested by the president’s auto task force, these people said.

G.M. had no immediate comment on the sudden development, which came on the eve of Mr. Obama’s announcement on Monday that is to detail his rescue plans for G.M., Chrysler and the larger American auto industry.

But people in the company said G.M. would issue a statement on Mr. Wagoner after the president unveiled his plan in Washington.

The president’s task force is expected to recommend more short-term aid for G.M. and Chrysler, but with tight strings on the money and a deadline on getting concessions from union workers and creditors.

A person with direct involvement in the auto bailout discussions said the new deadline would be April 30.

“Thirty days from now, there will either be a bankruptcy or the naming of a chief restructuring officer who will have government authority to ‘knock heads together,’” this person said of G.M. In addition, the government must come up with a backup guarantee on loan for G.M. to operate in bankruptcy because the banks will not do it.

G.M. and Chrysler have almost exhausted the $17.4 billion in federal aid the two companies have received since December. G.M. has asked for up to an additional $16.6 billion, and Chrysler has requested an additional $5 billion.

According to people close to the talks, the task force will treat G.M. and Chrysler differently with respect to their overhlaul plans and aid requests.

Mr. Wagoner was not available for comment, according to people at G.M. As recently as March 18 he said in an interview that he did not consider his job at stake in his discussions with the president’s auto task force. “They so far haven’t commented on that,” he said.

Mr. Wagoner, a graduate of Duke University and the Harvard Business School, vaulted into Detroit’s consciousness in 1992, when he was named G.M.’s chief financial officer at the age of 38.

He was a protégé of G.M.’s former chief executive, John F. Smith Jr., who ran the company after Robert C. Stempel resigned in October 1992. Mr. Wagoner stepped in when G.M.’s purchasing chief, Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, left for Volkswagen in 1993.

A year later, Mr. Wagoner was named president of G.M.’s North American operations, and was elevated to president of the company and its chief operating officer in 1998. He succeeded Mr. Smith as chief executive in 2000, and became G.M.’s chairman in 2003.

Mr. Wagoner followed Mr. Smith in expanding G.M.’s operations outside the United States. In 2007, G.M. sold more vehicles outside North American than it did in its core market, in part because of Mr. Wagoner’s aggressive pursuit of sales in China, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

But G.M.’s share of its most important market, the United States, declined steadily under Mr. Wagoner. In 1994, when he took charge of North America, G.M. held 33.2 percent of the American market. Last month, G.M. held only 18.8 percent of American auto sales, according to statistics from Motorintelligence.com, which specializes in industry data. Auto sales in February were the worst for the industry since 1981.

Shortly after taking the chief executive’s job, Mr. Wagoner predicted that G.M. could earn as much as $10 a share by the middle of the decade, because of efforts the company expected to take to cut its costs, transform its operations and build its business.

Last year, Mr. Wagoner led the celebration for G.M.’s 100th birthday, promising to steer the automaker into its next century with new technology and a renewed vigor. But G.M. collapsed last fall when new-vehicle sales in the United States plummeted to their lowest level in 25 years. G.M. lost more than $30 billion in 2008, and has been subsisting on government loans since the beginning of the year.

As G.M.’s biggest defender over the years, Mr. Wagoner has long been the target of critics including shareholders.

“He’s a victim of problems that his predecessors did not solve, but he’s also responsible for where G.M. is today,” Mr. Useem said.

Bill Vlasic reported from Detroit and Sheryl Gay Stolberg from Washington. Micheline Maynard contributed reporting from Detroit.

In a meanwhile others newspaper and media also reported about the Rick Wagoner Resign.CNBC first reported that Wagoner would step down, adding that GM did not confirm or deny the report.

Politico is reporting that the Obama administration asked GM CEO Rick Wagoner to step down:

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

And the Wall Street Journal reports the same:

An administration official confirmed that Mr. Wagoner was asked to step down by the administration as a precondition for ongoing restructuring within the company.

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