Wyoming | First, if GM goes into bankruptcy, understand where you, as a holder of common stock, are in the list of people who get paid: last. In bankruptcy, taxes have to be paid first, then holders of secured or senior bonds, then subordinated bonds, then preferred stock (of which there are at least three classes for GM), then common stock. Given the pile of liabilities for GM, if they go bankrupt (either Chap 11 or Chap 7), I think you'll be out of luck. This is all subject to the whim of the judges or special masters presiding over the bankruptcy, however. If they restructure and come back out of BK, I think it is highly likely that either they a) have a "reverse stock split" where you take a large number of current shares of GM and you get issued one share, or they'll have a stock swap for the stock of the "New General Motors Corp." |