History of General Motors Departure (bearings); Delco Electronics and ACDelco (electrical and electronic components); GMAC (finance); General Aviation and North American Aviation (airplanes); GM Defense (military vehicles) and Electronic Data Systems (information technology). General Motors was capitalized by William C. Durant on September 16, 1908 as a holding company. The next day it purchased Buick Motor Company, and rapidly acquired more than twenty companies including Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Oakland, now known as Pontiac, and McLaughlin of Canada. Dr. Campbell, Durant's son-in-law, put 1,000,000 shares on the stock market in Chicago Buick (then controlled by Durant). Durant's earlier company, the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, had been in
General Motors Companion Make Program General Motors Companion Make Program The General Motors Companion Make Program was a mid-1920s program to introduce brands to fill pricing and design gaps in GM's brand (mark) lineup General Motors pioneered the idea that consumers would aspire to buy up an automotive product ladder if a company met certain price points. As General Motors entered the 1920s, the product ladder started with the price-leading Chevrolet make, and then progressed in price, power and appointments to Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick and ultimately to the luxury Cadillac marque. However, by the mid-1920s, a sizable price gap existed between Chevrolet and Oakland, while