GM has tentative deal to sell Hummer

General Motors says it has tentatively agreed to sell its Hummer brand, a day after the U.S. automaker filed for bankruptcy protection with hopes that it will transform its most profitable assets into a new company within just 30 days. The Detroit-based company did not name the proposed buyer or the price, but said the sale will likely save more than 3,000 U.S. jobs in manufacturing, engineering and at various Hummer dealerships. The Shreveport GM plant produces the Hummer and the Hummer pickup truck. “We’re not today in a position to be able to identify a buyer. It was part of the agreement,” GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson told CBS’s The Early Show. ”We believe the buyer is quite capable of closing.” Critics had seized on the rugged but fuel-inefficient Hummer as a symbol of excess as GM’s financial troubles grew and gas prices rose. Sales at Hummer, which is known for hulking sport utility vehicles like the H3, have been in a steep slide since gasoline prices rose to record heights last summer. For the first four months of this year, Hummer sales are down 67%.