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 Europe the GM board called off the Magna deal after coming to the conclusion that Opel was crucial to GM's global strategy. With ongoing restructuring plans Opel announced the closure of its Antwerp plant in Belgium. Originally GM planned to sell Saab to Swedish sportscar maker Koenigsegg. On June 11, 2009 a letter of intent was signed by GM to sell Saab to Koenigsegg., but the deal fell through in November 2009. On January 26, 2010 Saab was sold to Spyker Cars, forming a company now known as Swedish Automobile. General Motors Europe General Motors Europe (often abbreviated to GM Europe)