GM CEO Fritz Henderson

Pontiac is scheduled to be shut down next year after inventories are eventually cleared. This news comes as a surprise to many analysts who know that Pontiac was GM’s third best selling make. Other GM subsidiaries like Saturn, Saab, and Hummer are also on the razors edge as they too may be downsized or closed completely. The reason why Pontiac was chosen for the axe was due to profitability concerns. Pontiac was not making GM a substantial enough profit.

21,000 jobs are expected to be cut in the coming months when the company closes its doors. Pontiac was introduced by GM in 1927 with the Pontiac Chief and has been a symbol of power ever since.

Okay let’s talk frankly about this. The reason why the automakers are in trouble is not because their cars aren’t selling, Pontiac is proof of that, it’s because of bad inefficient managerial structuring. If GM were to hand over Pontiac to a small car company who can manage the profits better, they would thrive. But let’s face it GM would rather shut them down than admit their inefficiency and sell them off. Perhaps they are afraid that Pontiac would be profitable for someone else and become a strong competition. Instead they’ll get cut and with no intent of bringing them back in the future. Sad.

Read more at CNNMoney.com

Image: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

Pontiac No More

Following in an excerpt from the Business Week article:

The report calls for the creation of a Center for Cybersecurity Operations that would act as a new regulator of computer security in both the public and private sector. Active policing of government and corporate networks would include new rules and a “red team” to test computers for vulnerabilities now being exploited with increasing sophistication and frequency by identity and credit card thieves, bank fraudsters, crime rings, and electronic spies.

Business Week quotes Tom Kellermann, who had a role in crafting the US cybersecurity strategy in 2003: “We’re playing a giant game of chess now and we’re losing badly.” In the recent past there have been break-ins in Homeland Security, information loss in DOD and a few other “incidents”. The most recent one was the attack by a malware called agent.btz which afflicted both military and corporate networks.

Some of the attacks are considered to have come not just from organized gangs but also with backing from other governments. Read the Business Week article for more details.

Post from: EveryJoe

US May Get a Center For Cybersecurity Operations