Monday 18th March 1929
General Motors (GM) announced its plans to acquire Opel AG, one of Germany’s largest car companies. When Alfred P. Sloan became president of GM in 1923, there was already a GM of Canada, but all other foreign markets were still being served through export. Throughout the 1920s the economic nationalism of European countries made international expansion difficult for the U.S. car companies. Ford attempted to crack foreign markets by setting up manufacturing subsidiaries in other countries. GM’s Sloan decided that purchasing existing companies in countries with desirable markets was a better policy. In 1925, GM purchased Vauxhall Motors of Great Britain. Sloan’s policies allowed GM to expand its market without attracting attention as a foreign company. On this day in 1929, GM announced its plans to buy the Adam Opel A.G. GM still runs Opel under the Opel name. Alfred Sloan is credited with turning GM from one of the most successful car companies in America into what was once one of the greatest industrial giants in the world.
