Fiat gets even bigger

al-Reuters has the story of the latest in the auto takeover game:

The head of Italian automaker Fiat will meet with members of the German government to talk about an offer to buy General Motor's unit Opel; a media report says the automaker has offered, at least initially, much less than GM wanted. German magazine WirtschaftsWoche cited sources close to the negotiations as saying that Fiat had already made an offer for Opel of under 1 billion euros ($1.33 billion), which GM considered too low. The report said it was not clear if the original offer had since been improved.
Fiat is set on acquiring Opel after it struck a last-minute deal to buy an initial twenty percent of Chrysler on Thursday, just ahead of the deadline imposed by the Obama administration to cement a partnership. The reported one billion euro offer is significantly higher than figures in earlier media reports, which said GM could sell Opel and UK-based Vauxhall at no gain, with a potential investor paying at least 500 million euros in equity. Fiat may, however, have to contend with an offer from Austrian-Canadian car parts maker Magna, which has shown interest in Opel. Zu Guttenberg said that Magna had presented the rough outlines of a rival offer to seize Opel. This offer was toned down, however, after Magna founder Frank Stronach said in an interview with Austria's Kleine Zeitung on the following day that it wanted to help Opel but it was too early to say what role it would play.