On the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, a crowd eight deep jostled around the company's trading post, adorned with its familiar blue-square logo with an underlined "GM." CEO Dan Akerson rang the opening bell as raucous cheers went up and the sound of a Chevrolet Camaro's revving engine echoed through the room.
The government hopes that the stock offering will be the first step toward ultimately breaking even on the bailout. For that to happen, the government needs to sell its remaining GM holdings for an average of roughly $50 a share over the next several years.
President Barack Obama says General Motors' plan to sell stock marks a major milestone not only in the turnaround of that iconic company, but of the U.S. auto industry as a whole.
A slimmed-down GM will begin offering stock Thursday, ending the government's role as majority shareholder.
Just last year, the automaker was near bankruptcy and dependent on financial aid from the government. Obama was criticized for bailing out GM and Chrysler.
But the president says it helped save jobs, rescue an industry at the heart of America's manufacturing sector and position it to be more competitive in the future.
The stock issue is drawing a lot of interest here in Mid-Michigan.
UAW Local 659 members are stuffing Thanksgiving baskets for the needy. Many of the retirees there say they're thankful that GM stock is once again selling because a portion of that money will help pay for their health care.
Many of these same retirees lost all of their GM stock when the company went through bankruptcy. Retiree Chairman John McCann says retirees took a 14 percent cut in their income because of the health care concessions during restructuring.
"I don't know what exactly ... the high point of GM. I believe around $97 a share. That is what we are hoping," McCann said.
The higher the price, the more money for retiree health care.
Some of the retiree are so thrilled about the stock selling that they planning to buy themselves.
Rita Jackson worked for GM for 24 years.
She took a financial hit when GM went bankrupt. Instead of being bitter, she's buying.
While the engines revved on Wall Street, Jackson was buying back home.
"We are buying some more stock, GM stock."
She's buying stock despite being burned during bankruptcy, when she says her old GM stock lost its value as the automaker restructured. "It went into that bankruptcy bucket."
Jackson has taken advantage of GM's offer to give around 600,000 employees and retirees the chance to buy stock during today's sale. "We hope that by buying the stock they will continue to grow and be number one in the industry."
Jackson's support for the new GM doesn't stop with stock purchases. She's also buying a car. "A new 2010 Cadillac," she said. "We want to see this company and the union survive."
Mott Community College professor Paul Londrigan says the cost of GM stock right now may price out the small investor, paving the way for larger investment companies to buy the shares.
We're already seeing this happen. GM's partner in China this morning said it will buy one percent of GM shares today.
"If you are young enough and you can hang on to the stock, you can make money. But the average man or woman, because the economy is so bad, we do not have the extra money to buy 100 or 200 or 5,000 shares, whatever you would like to buy," Londrigan said.
