Anatomy of a Reversed Foreign Divestment Decision: General Motors and Its European Subsidiary, Opel.

During this recent period of economic crisis andrising unemployment, General Motors, the US multinational,announced its decision to sell off Opel, its loss-making Europeanoperations. Foreign divestment (FD) decisions are notoriouslysecret, and often very controversial, arousing strong opposition.Whilst such decisions are difficult to make, they are an essentialaspect of corporate international business strategy. Plantclosures that involve substantial lay-offs attract scrutiny fromgovernments and policy-makers. This paper explores the recentmajor divestment proposals by these two global auto producersand the subsequent negotiations with governments in the homeand host nations