-U.S. car manufacturer General Motors joined every other American automaker by posting massive second quarter losses today. How bad was the hit? GM says that they had a $15.5 billion dollar net loss this quarter. Its loss per share was $11.21. In other words, really, really bad. It's not a good time to make American cars.

-Sibling dining chains Bennigan's and Steak and Ale both filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy protection this week, and announced that they would close all of the restaurants' 292 locations nationwide. No word yet on whether any of the other restaurants held by parent company Metromedia Restaurant Group, such as the Bonanza Steakhouse and Ponderosa Steakhouse, will shut down as well. But, according to court papers, the chain is more than $300 million in debt—and they'd have to sell a lot of steaks to dig themselves out of that hole.

-French telecom company Alcatel-Lucent also revealed this week that they're in trouble. They reported a net loss of $1.1 billion Euros this quarter, which was the company's sixth consecutive quarterly loss. Ouch. Because heads typically have to roll when things get ugly, the company's chief executive and chairman said that they will both step down.

-And because we missed this a few weeks ago: The Linkup, a social networking site revolving around, er, online storage announced two week ago that it's done for (imagine that!). After multiple rounds of venture capital investment and numerous screw-ups that apparently caused the site to lose half the files it was storing, they have decided to throw in the towel. Their website says that they'll officially shutter the operation next Friday. RIP.

Happy Friday!