General Motors said today that it earned $950 million in the fourth quarter of 2006, its largest quarterly profit in more than two years, as its restructuring plan drastically reduced expenses. G.M. earned $50 million in North America, the focus of its turnaround, although that figure falls to a $14 million loss excluding earnings that the company considers one-time items. For all of 2006, G.M. lost $2 billion, compared with a loss of $10.4 billion in 2005 that prompted the company to undertake its restructuring, which includes the closing of nine factories and the elimination 30,000 jobs. Excluding one-time items like payouts to employees who took buyout or early-retirement packages, G.M. earned $2.2 billion last year.
See "G.M. posts quarterly profit on cost cuts", Nick Bunkley, International Herald Tribune, March 13, 2007