Why General Motors' Revenue Fell 13% Last Quarter

General Motors (NYSE: GM) had a whopper of a special item in the third quarter: a set of one-time charges totaling $5.4 billion, all related to its sale of German automaker Adam Opel AG to rival Peugeot SA. That charge and other Opel-related costs pushed GM to a $3 billion GAAP net loss for the quarter, though much of that was an accounting charge.

As I said when GM's third-quarter numbers were released on Tuesday, the reality of GM's result wasn't nearly as bad as that big loss suggested. But even setting aside the effects of the Opel transaction, GM's revenue in the quarter was down over 13% from a year ago, to just $33.6 billion.

That decline happened even though GM's sales around the world (again, discounting Europe) were up year over year. How could GM sell more vehicles while generating significantly less revenue?

Source: Fool.com