IT IS ONE of the world's top three bond issuers. In terms of assets, it's among America's largest banks and makes most of its money from mortgages. It has 340,000 employees worldwide and vast purchasing power. It is second to only the government as the largest purchaser of Viagra in the US and is the world's biggest buyer of golf balls. Yet neither banking, executive sports or performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals are its main line of business and it isn't a conglomerate. It likes to think of itself as the world's biggest automotive company.
There are many baffling things about General Motors but the fact that it buys so much Viagra to pass on at subsidized rates to its employees under its healthcare scheme is surely not run-of-the-mill corporate practice. "People seem really very happy to work there," says one analyst.
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