Saab Soap, The Endgame: Antonov Wants War!
In the Saab soap, it looks like Vladimir Antonov does no longer want to be invited back. Swedish Aftonbladet reports that “Vladimir Antonov is pissed” (at least that’s Google’s translation for “Vladimir Antonov är förbannad”) and is looking into legal action against Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Finance Minister Anders Bork and Maud Olofsson, Minister for Enterprise and Energy.
And while Vlad the Impaler is at it, he also wants to sue the Swedish government as a whole and the management of the European Investment Bank EIB. He feels cheated and says the Swedish government is double dealing.
“We are totally unsympathetic to this,” said Johanna Martin, Press Secretary of Maud Olofsson, when Aftonbladet asked for a comment. The EIB had no comment at all.
The chances of Mr. Antonov to prevail in a court in Stockholm or Luxembourg are pretty slim. It might get more interesting if he asks his pal Putin to sail a submarine up the Göta Älv and to shell the city.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
More by Bertel Schmitt
Comments
Join the conversation
Antonov may sue whomever he pleases. However, if for some reason he becomes a major Saab owner, he will need the cooperation of the Swedish government and possibly the EIB whenever Saab decides to make a major transaction. He will be burning numerous bridges on his way to court.
We are sure going to miss SAAB in a week or two when they are gone. We need to find something else to talk about.
Maybe it will take Swedes, SaabAuto, Russia and Russians to debunk the "German auto-superiority myth". Where is the Russian auto industry anyway? Why copy machine tools and go thru the engineering when they can be bought for relative cheap? PLEASE. Somebody. Saved the world from GASM, before its too late.
Silly Russian and Chinese rich folks don't know how to invest their money. Kinda like BMW, Daimler-Benz, Ford and GM when they all went on a shopping spree for inferior British, Swedish and American makes. We all know how that turned out. lol