General Motors’ (NYSE:GM) final 2008 financial report was even worse than expected. The company reported a net loss of $9.6 billion for the fourth quarter for total yearly losses of $30.8 billion, the second worst year ever for the automaker. Automotive News reports: 

General Motors, battered by a global economic collapse and buoyed by U.S. rescue loans, posted its sixth straight quarterly loss and burned through $5.2 billion in cash as revenue shrank by more than a third.

The net loss of $9.6 billion in the fourth quarter compares with a loss of $1.5 billion a year earlier. The operating loss was $5.9 billion. GM said it expects its auditors to cast doubt on the company’s ability to survive as a “going concern.”

This can’t be good news. Coupled with the fact that the Obama administration is actively looking for debtor-in-possession funding for the company and has conspicuously not ruled out bankruptcy for the automaker, I think it’s looking like some sort of managed bankruptcy may be far more likely than the company or the UAW would like.