GM auctions overshadowed by IPO

GM raised more than $15 billion in its post-bankruptcy initial public offering Thursday. In the past two weeks at various plants that GM abandoned in its critical and massive downsizing last year, auctioneers sold lots of hammers, wrenches and 22-ton metal-cutting machines, some of which were purchased on behalf of foreign businesses that might someday make parts for GM, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Emerging from bankruptcy last summer, GM was broken up into two companies. The "new GM," which posted a profit of $2 billion in the third quarter, went public last week. The "old GM," left behind in bankruptcy court, was cataloged, tagged and liquidated at auctions.

At plants once filled with workers, auctioneer took bids from buyers sitting in folding chairs and from others over the Internet.

Much of the equipment went for between 10 cents and 30 cents on the dollar, the Journal said.

"Three hundred once. Three hundred twice. Sold for 290," the Journal quoted auctioneer Robert Levy saying, closing the bidding at $290,000 for a $2 million metal cutting machine at a former stamping plant in Wyoming, Mich.

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