General Motors Prepares for Pension Decision, and Cadillac Campaign

Auto giant General Motors

is preparing for a big day on Friday, when 42,000 retirees will choose between a lump-sum buyout and annuity. According to the

, the retires, who retired between October 1 1997 and December 1 2011, can receive a lump sum that in some cases is more than half a million dollars, or they can continue getting their current monthly pension payment from an annuity from Prudential Insurance. GM is planning to close its pension plan by the end of this year, in the process removing the $26 billion liability from its balance sheet. However, the move is not without its opposition, with many retirees feeling that the payout might sound a lot initially, but it may not be enough to last them their entire lives. It has been a busy month for General Motors, as it

last week. It would appear that General Motors is making a concerted effort to invest heavily in the future while taking money away from the people that helped build the company's past. 90 percent of General Motors' IT is currently handled by roughly 10,000 workers outside of the company, while only 10 percent is handled by its small global IT workforces of about 1,500. The bigger problem is that, of those 11,500 combined people, roughly 75 percent work on supporting the business, leaving only 25 percent to work on innovation. Randy Mott, GM's vice president of information technology, said that the company has to change that. In addition,

reported that Wednesday saw GM's Cadillac launch the new ATS sedan with the aim of competing with BMW. "The task of ATS is very ambitious, going into the largest luxury segment against a brand like 3-Series that's dominated the segment," said Cadillac global marketing director James Vurpillat. On Wednesday, General Motors traded at about $20, up roughly 1.7 percent.