What To Do With Bankrupt Saab? Sell It To The Indians
Yesterday, the alleged enthusiast blog did play its usual “if we would tell you, they would shoot us” about a possible suitor from India:
“We are not allowed to reveal the identity of the company yet, but we are allowed to reveal some facts about it. They are of course based in India but acts on a world-wide basis with much more than 100’000 employees worldwide. They are a multi-billion dollar company, that work on multiple fields such as energy, logistics, real estate and of course within the aerospace and automotive industry.”
Bloomberg does not bother playing twenty questions and reports:
“Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India’s biggest sport-utility vehicle manufacturer, is interested in buying at least parts of bankrupt Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile, two people familiar with the situation said.”
Not more is known about the matter. According to Swedish media, Mahindra hasn’t even had an audience with the administrators yet.
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.
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I have a friend who saw the top secret documents referring to CIA operation under the code name "Omega-2012". According to those documents the main objective of operation "Omega-2012" was to prevent unfriendly governments from getting their hands on disruptive technologies (like Phoenix) developed by American companies and their affiliates. CIA forced US companies and especially ones who get help from US Government to pledge unconditional allegiance to the leaders of operation "Omega-216". Many media sources were also forced to participate in operation by discrediting persons and organization involved in technology transfer. Another method used was to cut financing and help from other governments to companies involved in transfer. I know for sure that Mr.Antonov is an honest man and a visionary businessman. But unfortunately with his vision for new SAAB he went too far against interests of US Government and its puppets. CIA also forced Swedish government to stay away from SAAB and watch it drown. Swedish government had no reason not to save thousands high paying jobs and help to develop world changing technologies like Phoenix. But it and many European bank were discouraged from helping SAAB since Europe now depends on bailout funds from US Government not different from what happened after WW2.
Yes Paddan, I guess that it could be true. But here's a thought, a bit left field I know but bear with me. The 9-3 was nearly a decade old when Saab went bust and wasn't good enough. The New 9-5 was brand new & still wasn't good enough. The cars weren't selling because they weren't any good not because Jaguar were worried about sales of the XF. And what of Saab is there left for the Indians to buy? As I said up there; the landlords own the factories, Youngman are convinced they own the PhoeniX project, the 9-4X would appear to be cancelled, the Latvian banks will want Antonovs money back, GM will be able to veto any deal and SAAB AB are probably going to take the name back. All that leaves is the tooling for the current 9-3 and good luck with that. Those ostrichs with their heads buried in the sand over at The Church Of The One True Saab STILL don't get it. They are talking like a white knight will come over the horizon to buy the whole company when there isn't a whole company still to buy. Their total ignorance in all matters business and in particular all that "we know something no one else knows" BS just astounds me every time I lurk there (I was banned for pointing out some home truths about North Street Capital.). They just can't understand that nobody runs a car company for love, its all about the money. Saab has died and despite what the true believers think, is not coming back because the product wasn't good enough & not enough customers cared anymore. Its the first brand, it will not be the last. This year is going to be one where the industry finally realises that there are too many brands trying to sell too many cars to a market that is no longer there. A LOT of people in this business are about to have a very bad year.
Over at The Church Of The One True Saab, their "We Are Many,We Are Saab" campaign isn't going so well Their big meetings on the 15th/16th worldwide have so far attracted just under 2000 members of the board. If you say treble that for people who know about the campaign but don't want to post, that makes about 6000 people who still give a crap about Saab. That will look attractive to any possible buyer. 6000 Saabistas driving around in 15 year old 9000s shouting about how nasty GM are. I'm pretty sure that 6000 is pretty much what Ford register just in the UK per month,
This just in from the Not A Surprise At All file. The gorgeous, pouting Ms Pang as stated in an interview with di.se this evening that Youngman will be happy to get the tooling, production line and rights to the current 9-3 as part of the bankruptcy proceedings to go along with the PhoeniX platform which they already believe they have a watertight contract for. She also believes that GM will withdrawal the rights to the new 9-5 and the 9-4X is dead and buried. Looks like someone thinks they've got exactly what they wanted all along. Ever get the feeling you've been shafted, Mr Muller?