NEW YORK - November 11, 2008 - General Motors Corp., burning cash as U.S. sales slide, is being pushed closer to bankruptcy as it waits to learn whether the auto industry will win a new round of government loans.

The shares slid for a fifth day on concern the biggest U.S. automaker won't have enough cash to make it through the end of the year. Only federal aid could prevent a collapse, and reorganizing in court may not be possible because the credit crunch has dried up financing, analysts said.

“Strategic bankruptcy is not an option for GM,” said Mark Oline, a credit analyst with Fitch Inc. in Chicago. “This is an issue of operating or not operating.”

The prospect of a forced liquidation raises the stakes for GM's quest for new federal borrowing after saying on November 7 it may run out of operating cash as soon as year's end. GM had $16.2 billion on hand as of September 30, down from $21 billion at the end of June, and needs $11 billion to pay its monthly bills.

GM is canceling press events set for next week at the Los Angeles Auto Show to focus instead on discussing new models at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, a spokesman, Scott Fosgard, said today.

“A bankruptcy wouldn't address our immediate liquidity concerns,” said Renee Rashid-Merem, a spokeswoman for Detroit-based GM. “It's not an option for GM because it creates more problems than it solves.”

Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said GM's U.S. sales “would be devastated” by a bankruptcy filing. Deliveries fell 21 percent last quarter and 45 percent in October. The “unimaginable consequence” of a bankruptcy “motivates us to really come up with cash in every way possible,” Wagoner said in a November 7 Bloomberg Television interview.

Investors may be concluding that GM won't succeed. The shares slid 43 cents, or 13 percent, to $2.93 at 1:30 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, chopping their value almost in half in the past week. Deutsche Bank AG said yesterday the stock may be worthless in a year.