GM teetering on brink of bankruptcy

DETROIT, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. corporate icon General Motors Corp. is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy as auto sales shrink and the company burns through cash, the company revealed.

Company officials unveiled a grim forecast Friday that threatened to put the 100-year-old, one-time flagship symbol of the United States' economic dominance into bankruptcy court, the Detroit Free Press reported.

GM's sales were at a 25-year low, and it revealed it was burning through $2 billion in cash each month to maintain operations. The company warned that its cash reserves could sink below the minimum operational levels within weeks, unless it gets federal aid or can find new investors.

"We're convinced that the consequences of bankruptcy would be dire," GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner told reporters. "We need to find a way to get through this, and that's really our focus."

Even with $5 billion in savings from new moves to lay off 3,600 factory workers, cut white-collar jobs and idle plants from Lansing, Mich., to Lordstown, Ohio, the automaker could still have trouble paying its bills, the Detroit News reported, adding it has called off a possible merger with rival Chrysler LLC.