General Motors may have been a little premature with its December 18th announcement that its Saab division would be shuttered. Although the future of the brand isn’t exactly bright, GM will likely continue to entertain offers for Saab into 2010.
The fate of the Saab brand was thought to be sealed after a deal to sell the Swedish brand to Spyker fell through on December 18th, but extended the bidding process to December 31. GM has since received a new offer from Spyker – as well as from “several [other] parties” – prompting the Detroit automaker to rethink its December 31 cutoff.
“It’s our understanding that if there’s a bid that GM finds sufficiently interesting, then the 31st of December is not a date that’s holy,” Paul Aakerlund, a board member at Saab, told Bloomberg.
In addition to the revised bid from Spyker, it is believed that Merbanco Inc. has placed an offer for the Saab brand. The Wyoming-based firm recently brought in a group of Swedish investors to help with the bidding process.
General Motors has yet to notify Saab about any wind down plans, with the automaker’s Trollhaettan plant set to reopen on January 11 after its scheduled holiday shutdown. However, if no deal is reached in early 2010, the Saab brand will likely follow Pontiac and Saturn into the automotive history books.
