GM: Opel Not For Sale
That was quick. GM is saying nein, danke to SolarWorld’s offer to buy elements of its Opel subsidiary for one billion Euros. “This is pure speculation. Opel is not for sale,” GM Europe spokesman Nelson Silveira tells Automotive News [sub]. Meanwhile Opel is slashing production, and angling for its own federal bailout, courtesy of Berlin. Of course a German bailout of Opel will only happen if GM files for bankruptcy, but then, the same could be said for SolarWorld’s offer. AN notes that SolarWorld “benefited enormously from new energy laws set up by the Social Democrat-Greens government after it took power in 1998,” and it’s clearly aiming to not only acquire Opel up for a song, but to turn around and snag the government money as well. This is what the new economy calls “timing the market and the government,” a technique the firm is clearly riding to success with solar panels. Anyway, auto industry boffins say the offer is a joke, a charge SolarWorld founder and CEO Frank Asbeck firmly denies. Meanwhile, GM is clearly less adept at “timing the government,” or at the very least “charming the government.” With a US bailout looking increasingly less likely, GM may soon lose the luxury of saying no to offers like this one.
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Why sell in the private market for modest bucks when you can get a bailout from the government for huge bucks?