Spykaab?

Rico says anyone, even the Dutch, saving Saab is a good thing. (His then-wife drove one for several years.) The New York Times has the story:

Spyker Cars, the Dutch maker of luxury cars, is still in talks with General Motors to buy its ailing Saab brand, but no deal has been reached, spokesmen for both sides said Monday. A GM spokesman, Chris Preuss, declined to say if the company was close to a deal with Spyker, and he said GM was continuing with its plans to shut down Saab’s operations. GM’s interim chief executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., has scheduled a news conference for 11:30 a.m. in Detroit, where he is expected to announce that he will become the company’s permanent chief. But Mr. Whitacre also is expected to field questions about the Saab sale.
GM and Spyker negotiated through the weekend trying to work out a deal to save Saab, which GM has decided to jettison as part of its restructuring plan to focus on four core brands, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC.
Swedish media reported that a deal was close, but Mr. Preuss said nothing had been finalized as of Monday afternoon in Sweden. Meanwhile, shares in Spyker surged again Monday on reports that a deal was imminent. Spyker shares rose 29 percent to 2.77 euros on news media reports saying that a deal was close.
A Spyker spokesman, Mike Stainton, told The Associated Press on Monday the reports were "speculation”. He said the negotiations are continuing.
On 6 January, Mr. Whitacre said of Saab: ”It’s real easy. Just show up with the money and you can have it.”
GM has begun shutting Saab down, though its 3,400 employees have not yet been laid off.
A deal for Spyker to buy Saab by itself is unlikely: Spyker sold 23 cars in the first half of 2009, its most recent reporting period, and it posted a net loss of 8.7 million euros ($12.3 million). The six-year-old company has yet to make a profit, but it says funding for its operations have been guaranteed through 2010.
Money for a deal to buy Saab could come from Spyker’s largest shareholder, Russia’s Conversbank Financial Group, or other shareholders. It would also likely involve a large loan from the European Investment Bank, backed by the government of Sweden. Mr. Stainton said the financial structuring of a deal would only be made public at the time it was announced. He couldn’t say whether that was likely to happen this week. Spyker’s shares have been rising since its chairman, Victor Muller, first began a public campaign wooing GM in early December.
Saab Automobile sold around 90,000 cars in 2008, a thirty percent decline from 2007. With another sharp sales decline expected, it filed for protection from creditors while it reorganized in February of 2009. GM said at the time it expected to sell Saab and take $1 billion in losses. GM filed for bankruptcy itself in June and its attempts to sell Saab by a 31 December deadline failed.

Late-breaking news: The deal went through on Tuesday, and Saab is safely sold to Spyker.