Yeah, it’s Christmas, and whilst GM may have called a pause in negotiations on the deal (which frankly, I find to be astounding considering it’s their deadline and thousands of jobs are at stake) that doesn’t mean that the situation rests.
It seems there was a bit of drama here while I was sleeping.
The drama seems to have stemmed, once again, from some mainstream media reports about the Saab situation that weren’t necessarily inaccurate, but from what I can see, they failed to give the full context of the situation.
Let’s use the AFP report as the basis for discussion here:
US auto giant General Motors will not consider Dutch sportscar maker Spyker’s renewed bid for Saab and is planning to shut down the Swedish brand, a Swedish newspaper reported Thursday.
“Saab’s board had a short meeting yesterday. GM representatives were on the phone from the US. And the discussions were entirely about the shutting down Saab — not about the new bid,” wrote daily Svenska Dagbladet (SVD).
GM announced last week it would wind down its loss-making Swedish unit Saab after breaking off sales talks with Spyker.
But the Dutch company then made a last-ditch bid for the iconic brand, which it extended indefinitely hours before it was due to expire Monday.
“The word (at the meeting) was to shut down Saab and that is what we have started working on,” Haakan Danielsson of Sweden’s engineering union told SVD.
There’s nothing here that is factually incorrect (except for the interpretation). But as I mentioned at the top, it does lack some context. The fact that the meeting only discussed the wind-down process is not an indication that negotiations have failed. All it means is that the wind-down process was the topic of discussion for that particular meeting.
What we’ve got going on here is two concurrent processes.
GM announced last week that negotiations with Spyker had failed and that they would wind down the Saab business. Whilst I believe that will formally begin on January 1 (if it happens) the wheels are being set in motion now. That’s what I believe was happening at that meeting – discussions about how that would begin.
Whilst that’s happening…..
There are also ongoing negotiations with both Spyker and the Merbanco/Swedish consortia about the sale of Saab. As I write this, both groups are still negotiating with GM (yes, confirmed) and the 31st December deadline for a decision is still in play.
If GM figure that they can do a deal with one of these groups, then they’ve said that they would keep Saab operating to allow that deal to go through.
So yes, they’re planning the wind-down operation, and yes, they’re negotiating with two groups for a sale. Hopefully the latter situation will render the former situation moot.
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In the meantime, if you haven’t already visited, head on over to www.iwontbuyfromgm.com and consider whether you’ll buy another GM product again if they close the Saab Automobile operation.
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Thanks Steven for bringing some sanity to the situation and hopefully quelling the rumour mongering. Now go and have some turkey!
Thank you. About sums things up.
Question is when will something be announced.
Thank you for the clarification…
This will go down in history as the scariest rollercoaster in the whole world… of death [;)].
I wouldn’t worry about it swade.
Your site has constantly delivered multiplue stories for years.
Another other site I can think of is only interested in maintaining their site when the spotlight is on.
Thank your for elucidating this for us!
Swade, thanks for the sanity! Emotions run deep this time of year under normal circumstances. The situation with our beloved Saab makes it even more frazzled. Merry Christmas…again!! Still Christmas Eve here.
I reckon GM will announce something 31Dec. I only hope its positive.
Thank you Swade. I was worried there for a bit. On a semi-related subject, does any one know how many e-mails Ed Whitacre was inundated with by us?
I would call this rather creating media.. ehm hype.
Thanks Swade, and Merry Christmas 2u & your family.
Swade,
how can we take advantage for MAXIMUM publicity of the emails sent to GM & the Swedish government, the google map & your recent initiative mentioned above?
A COMBINED PUBLIC appearance of all these initiatives could manage to widely get our message across.
Let’s work something out.
All the best
L
Hi L,
The mainstream media has already picked up on the email campaign and reported it in various stories.
The new campaign has just begun and has received nearly 600 comments already – on Christmas eve.
I’ll let Christmas day go by and then will begin to bring this to the mainstream media’s attention. hopefully it’ll be in time to let GM know that the light is on and people are looking.
Swade, I think the mainstream media is becoming irritated and jealous that you are the first word in breaking Saab news, and the last word in Saab news accuracy. They’re going to start trying to jump on any Saab news hoping that it’ll turn out to be true and they can claim they broke it.
Merry Christmas! As always Swade you see this in clarity and based on facts. I was not worried about the SVD article about the wind-down. I really hope CJ with Merbanco and the Swedes succeeds ! There is also some reports here that SAABs former owner Investor has some interest in SAAB. I am not sure they are along with Merbanco though. See this link and use googletrans: http://www.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.1823989/svenska-investerare-redo-att-radda-saab
IMO Tassyfan1, that article is an extremely poorly written piece. It starts out with pure speculation about the Wallenberg company Investor in the first paragraph, then goes on to interview a completely unrelated character who speculates about what a possible future for Saab could look like.
In the end, the article tries to not only link one particular group together with the current bid, but also speculate that they will team up with Fiat so they can start producing Fiats in Trollhättan, while somehow retaining R&D.
And add to that the fact that no-one entering this late in the piece has a realistic chance of doing anything in terms of purchasing Saab and you can see why it wasn’t reported here at SU.
If GM wind Saab down, the Wallenbergs might be interesting in picking the bones, but that’s a whole other matter.
Expressen article are always treated with much caution around here.
Mr. Wade, thank you again and always for the updates and clarifications. We all owe you deepest appreciation for your tireless efforts and dedication.
All the best
I’m very impressed with how quickly you guys find these articles, translate them, and determine whether they are trustworthy or not… Wow…
bravo swade! i honestly (no matter how retarded GM is) do not believe GM would call dealers and waste their time and resources by telling them to hold tight for the holidays. if anything that is a sign that the talks with spyker are ongoing. i also do not think mr. muller would be doing so many interviews if he felt he wouldnt be successful. it would hurt his car company immensely in the market too.
so merry merry merry! everyone buy something nice for their saab for the holidays. im getting my saab 900 a cup holder.
Makes sense. I can’t believe GM is concerned about future competition from Saab. What is 100,000 sales worldwide to GM?
The question is what factors are important to GM? The ability to come up with the funding must be one factor. The ability to cooperate with GM in the transition from GM initiated products to non-GM initiated products must be another. The Swedish Government must be another. Trustworthiness must be another. Are there other know factors in play?
I agree !
im a little worry not to say worry as hell..dunno got this not too good feeling about that…damn u GM!!
im sorry with all that anxiety i forgot to wish everybody a merry xmas!!!
You’re definitely correct, GM may not be worried about 100,000 units.
Yet, I think we can all agree that Saab, in the right hands, could have a renaissance that would eventually make 100,000 units look modest.
I know the Apple analogy has been beaten to death, but don’t you think Dell, HP and Microsoft today really wish Apple had just died in 1997?
After all what did they have 2% market share just before the Jobs, iMac, iPod resurgence? It goes completely against the economic theory of increasing returns, but we all see it. Apple is the third biggest computer manufacturer in the world now and it sets the bar for software and hardware design.
You know it’s possible with Saab. I know it’s possible. I’m sure there’s at least one GM bean-counter with a small spark of imagination somewhere deep in the dark goop that is his mind that might remotely consider the possibility that Saab could come back big and make GM look like the big dumb dinosaur that it truly is AND, do it without sacrificing what makes it unique.
Scary thought.
Oh well Merry Christmas everyone.
I just hope we’re not just taking the optimistic side only just to fool ourselves. Go SAAB!!!
They only thing that GM should worry about, is looking pretty stupid that it never managed to achieve anything with Saab. That should be water of a duck’s back.
GM will still get income from Saab for quite some time after it’s sold. If the rumours about very high royalties are true, that income could be quite substantial. But that also means that Saab will quickly have to move away from legacy GM models. That’s all it’s current and presently forthcoming range BTW (9-3SS, NG9-5 and 9-4x). Hopefully the NG9-3 can escape that tag as it’s design will most likely be completed outside of Saab’s GM period. I imagine it will still be reliant on quite a number of GM parts though. The less the better perhaps?
I just cant get my head around the fact that SAAB may be closed. That very brief 9-5 video just shows how much of a future SAAB has in that the car is gorgeous.
All I ask is that GM gives someone else a chance and if it doesn’t work out at least we cant blame GM for closing SAAB.
I am planning a pilgrimage to the SAAB museum in early February as part of my “get me the heck out of Vancouver during the Olympics” trip.
Don’t worry zippy, I’m sure that if even if Saab closes, something will rise from the ashes, even if it’s not exactly the same Saab we know.
Personally I don’t think that will happen. I still think Saab will get through this. I have done all along. There’s still a couple of surprises to come too!
BTW I was trying to go to Vancouver to work on the Winter Olympics, but I lucked out.
Last time I was in Vancouver was 1991. I’ll still try for the London summer games though. Maybe I’ll have better luck?
I’m 100% Apple,too. GM is not concerned about Saab taking off or they would keep it. The recent monthly Saab sales numbers look awful.
GM wants to cleanup their balance sheet. That’s why they hired a former Microsoft executive.
If GM is going to wind down Saab, it just shows the world how stupid GM’s management on this niche Swedish brand during the last 2 decades. There are many so-called auto consultants think, without GM, Saab won’t have an assembly plant as efficient as nowaday.
But they forgot if Saab did go without GM, maybe Saab’s potential already fully exploded. Even Ford era, they left Volvo as a Volvo. Just give them those modern platforms, instead of GM gave Saab those outdated Vectra platforms. Volvo is capable of producing some attractive S40, S60 and S80. Those S60/S80 platform is so capable that even Ford had to use them to produce new Taurus and MKT. Unfortunately, those Vectra platform for OG9-3 and 9-5 is just plain outdated platform. Also under Ford’s umberlla, Volvo continued to have resources to engineered “City Safety” in XC60 and XC90 which match the golden SUV era. Saab, on the other hand, stuck with that stupid TrollBlazer. As for Volvo side, it benefits Mazda3 and Focus on safety structure with rigid platform while sharing platform with C30/V50/S40.
By elminating a competition on killing a brand is completely unethical and stupid. Just ask Microsoft on those “anti trust case”.
GM can’t be trusted to do the right thing. Just do a quick search for the “Great American streetcar scandal”.
it is a 200,000 unit swing if those sales go to competitors. bad press and that number goes even higher. if it doesn’t grab gm’s attention then something is very wrong with gm.
Merry Christmas from the other side of the world, swade.
Here are some inspiring videos on Youtube, except I hope the part about Saab funerals in 2009 doesn’t come true! The new 9-5 looks awesome. Can we be so close and yet so far?
SAAB FUNERALS : the stillborn models march
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLYjGIBfumg
R.I.P SAAB 2009!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht51TwGvdSo
Saab Aero 9-3 2.0T from 0 to 100 mph:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FDbLgNLRwY
Saab Automobile 1947-2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yik0Zy0nM4o
Merry Christmas from Finland to Everybody in Saabsunited!
I´ve been reading this site a lot, but this is the first time to write. At first I must say Swade is an amazing man! He has done a lot for SAAB.
I´ve been driving with SAABs now 10 years, at the moment in my garage 2003 SS and a brandnew 9-3X ttid, I decided to bought that one from local dealers showroom last weeks dark friday. It´s a great car, white colour is exellent in this beautiful winter weather!
I have an idea, I don´t know if it is good or not but just throwing idea on the table. We probably can´t gather money from saabfans to buy the car company, but could we get still more publicity to buy an ad to one US newspaper, even a front page or so? Some kind of public appeal to GM leaders(similar which many has done privatly) so that it would really break through in media.
At the moment there are about 650 people that signed that petition. GM will not be scared of 650. Aren’t the guys from RescueSAAB.com reading along here? Like Ralf? They have over 18.000 subscribers. If you send out the link in a mailing (especially if you add the message translated in in German), and only half of your subscribers sign it, it will be close to 10.000… GM might get scared a little when the numbers will go upo into the 10.000′s… Or is such an action maybe a little too much in Opel’s home country?
excellant idea!!!!!!!!!!!!
Precisely why a certain PM should make some calls.
Not only is it obvious he is sitting on his hands (unlike Merkel, he deliberately stayed away from Detroit), but now several good suggestions have been relayed through the media. His answers, quite frankly, leaves a lot to be desired and I think it is time to draw his mental faculties into question.
In my country, he would probably enjoy good job security, because all of our politicians suck. My (limited) impression of Sweden is that they actually have a number of capable politicians that could easily step in, so I feel fairly confident his days are numbered.
And no, “delegating” is not a good answer. That smells strongly of laziness. When an entire industry is on the line, the buck has to stop somewhere.
Even if the deal now lands safely, I cannot see how the PM could surface out of this in a graceful manner. Politicians are very good at taking credit for the work of others, but the PM has consistently kept out of the way. Actually, that isn’t true. He has almost gone out of his way to add further injury to the situation. The impression that Saab is a big money-drain is the one that seemed to stick in the public’s mind.
I wrote the PM a short email the other day, but refrained from commenting until now. I did not use any bad language, but I was far from being polite.
To Ed I was being polite. Ed is, in his own words, an outsider. I do not expect him to know anything about Saab, so I decided to share the reasons for why I am a fan of Saab and the people behind Saab.
But the Swedish PM? He is not an outsider. He is supposed to know more about Saab than me. He is supposed to care. He has the job he has for a reason. And he has failed every possible step of the way for the past year (or more). All the opportunities offered to do some good have been mostly met with a boot solidly lodged in someone’s mouth. Well, with the possible exception of post-Koenigsegg talks when the government finally seemed to realize the answer to 2+2, but the PM is still distant from the process as such.
I can only speculate that the PM fully expects Saab to sink, and he wants to distance himself from the wreckage as much as possible. The less he says, the less he does, the less blame gets shifted upon him. I.e. the coward’s way. I fail to see how this approach could work, but I guess it has been known to work in the past. Few politicians enjoy the limelight of foreign independent media that are hell-bent on finding out the truth though.
I apologize for my rants. I have other issues to deal with in real life, issues that I deem more complicated than the topic at hand. For me, the Saab situation is a no-brainer. A good company with nice potential, situated in a country which has an abundance of resources (and some wealthy neighbours), and a number of buyers interested in making this company the success it deserves to be. The difficulty arrives in certain in-duh-viduals who should have kept quiet when they had no knowledge of what was going on, and that should have spoken up once someone carefully explained to them what was taking place.
I am thinking of becoming a Swedish citizen so I can help keep these people out of office. (Intended as a joke, but I am only half joking)
GM SHOULD ATTEMPT TO GET ITS AMERICAN OPERATIONS IN ORDER.
I BELIEVE THE GM FUTURE WILL BE CONSIGNED TO THE AMERICAS.
THE OPEL UNIONS WILL SEE THE WRITING ON THE WALL IF GM BANISH SAAB AND WILL ACT ACCORDINGLY.
FUGM [has such a nice ring to it]
while such action would cost a fair bit i suspect media group’s would refrain from publishing such because the have a large income stream from GM activities.
You’re right…
So we really should be Volvo fans as well !
Sweden has a Prime Minister?
Concerning the Apple analogy, I believe that there are significant differences:
-Even throughout its worst performance, Apple still had BILLIONS USD in cash; it was more of a problem of direction and ideas. Saab is out of money for new developments.
-Software development is cheaper than hardware development, and requires no big manufacturing plants. That is why Apple delegated most of it’s hardware development and assembly to intel, Foxcon etc, and focussed on certain, important hardware deveelopments like the packaging of the hardware, and e.g. the iPhone, allowing them to still offer products with differentiating features. Automobile industry is however still very much about hardware.
-Even in SW development, Apple relies havily on avaiable public domain developments, mainly “refining” them in respect to usability. Again, there is a huge difference, since unfortunately, there are no “public domain” parts available in the automotive industry.
-There really was a significant deficiency with the “competitors” (mainly Windows, Linux, Solaris) with respect to usability, or more generaly speaking, with what the people wanted/needed, that Apple delivered. I don’t see any potential area where Saab could achieve such a superiority over it’s competitors.
-Apple was very lucky with the iPod, a success nobody, including Apple, had anticipated (halo effect). Unfortunately, there is a vague thing about luck
Some have suggested that Apple should buy Saab. Forget it. S Jobs is no car guy. He personally drives a Mercedes coupe, and has sometimes compared Apple to BMW, essentially showing that he had no idea how many cars BMW actually produces (maybe based on their rather small market share in the US?). He has now introduced four game changing items into data processing (Apple II, Macintosh, NeXTStep, iPhone), but certainly won’t do that to cars.
Everyone remember to Facebook link the http://www.iwontbuyfromgm.com site. That is how I found out about the new campaign to show how GM business strategies put more nails into their corporate coffin.
Think it is especially important to spread the message across the U.S.A., so that GM realizes that they are losing more than just Saab sales —no more GM platform vehicles of any type on their home turf might make them take a bit of notice. Have been spreading the word to all my friends and family that if GM kills Saab, and you still that feel you must pretend to buy American, then look to Ford or Fiat/Alfa Romeo/Chrysler.
GM is only hastening its own demise by disenfranchising the affluent, influential, and fiercely loyal Saab fans. There will be NO Chevys, GMCs, Buicks, or Cadillacs in our future —nor amongst any of extended circle of friends and family!
Today in the Spanish newspaper LA Vanguardia, they say GM is accelerating the wind-down process of Saab, as the Spyker bid it seems it won’t go further and talks about the rumors of the Dutch Billonares. These type of missinformation hurts a lot the Saab brand.
In praise of… SaabComments (65)
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Editorial
The Guardian, Thursday 24 December 2009 Article historyIt is too often said that if Swedes bought Saab cars as fervently as they loved them, one of Europe’s best-known brands would not be in the pickle that it is currently in. That is to be unduly harsh on a carmaker that over the last 62 years has produced a steady stream of bold designs that have been as iconic as they have been idiosyncratic. Almost every generation of Saab has spawned its own dewy-eyed owner. There are drivers who can remember adding oil into the two-stroke engine of the bullnose Saab 96, the car that achieved international cooldom and was as at home in California as it was on the rally circuit. There are others who think that only a 900i three-door Combi sedan is the true expression of the faith, and that no rear spoiler has ever looked the same since. Yet others prostrate themselves before the turbo-charger, which transformed a heavy lump of metal into a fleet-footed sprinter that left Volvos for dust. And what reveries of push-button dashboard design greeted the driver inside. Wrapped in a cocoon of green lights, too many a fantasist at the wheel could imagine themselves saying “Roger that” to ground control. No dream can last, and under GM, Saab became steadily more mainstream as it borrowed technology from elsewhere. As it did, it became less able to define itself against outperforming German rivals. It has also not made a profit since 2001, a factor weighing heavily on any prospective buyer. But what a loss it would be if the dream died and Saab became history.
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