GM plunges into the red

General Motors Corp, surviving on $13.4 billion in US aid, reported a $9.6 billion fourth-quarter loss as Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner prepared to ask the Treasury for more cash to get through the year.

The deficit was $15.71 a share, wider than the year-earlier net loss from continuing operations of $1.5 billion, or $2.70 a share, GM said yesterday in a statement. The $30.9 billion annual loss was the second largest in GM's 100-year history.

"The size of the loss matters not only because it impacts what it will cost to restructure the company, but also the kind of bill for which the taxpayer is on the hook," said John Casesa, a managing partner at consultant Casesa Shapiro Group LLC in New York. "Conditions in this quarter could not have been worse."