Last Friday, GM spokesman Jim Cain said that the company would "not be able to support a change in the ownership of Saab which could negatively impact GM's existing relationships in China or otherwise adversely affect GM's interests worldwide.”
Today, General Motors has finally stopped beating around the bush and decided to come out in the open about the Saab-Pang Da-Youngman deal. And what the Detroit-based automaker said is that it's not giving away its Epsilon platform technology nor its 9-4X SUV.
“Although General Motors is open to the continued supply of powertrains and other components to Saab under appropriate terms and conditions, GM will not agree to the continuation of the existing technology licenses or the continued supply of 9-4X vehicles to Saab following the proposed change in ownership, as it would not be in the best interest of GM shareholders,” Cain said in a statement.
This means that Saab’s former owner, which still is a preference stakeholder and major supplier, has openly opposed the Chinese takeover and the transfer of GM technology that it entails.
Saab enthusiast site SaabsUnited contacted Cain, who further clarified GM’s position: “It’s about a change of control in ownership. When Saab was sold to Spyker, we wrote technology licenses, supply agreements and other things and those were based on a relationship with a business plan and our understanding of their strategy and how they were going to be deploying intellectual property and the science of a building a vehicle that we’ve developed over decades of time.”
Now that the Chinese are interested in taking over Saab, Cain says that the Spyker deal is off. GM is ready to negotiate, but on new terms.
“As you can see in our statement, the issue of supplying components and power train and other things to Saab is something we’d be open to continuing under the right conditions. But when you talk about the 9-4X and the technology licenses, that is something we have to manage so carefully because it potentially impacts us in markets all over the world. We need to be able to control our own technology in order to be successful for the long term.”
Saab’s current owner Swedish Automobile responded with an official statement: “We have taken notice of a press statement issued by General Motors regarding the proposed sale to Pang Da Automobile and Youngman Automobile. We acknowledge the position taken by General Motors, and will now discuss with Pang Da and Youngman to see whether a structure can be agreed which is acceptable to all parties concerned.”
This effectively means that Saab is back to square one or as its CEO, Victor Muller, put it, “we have to go back to the drawing board".
Story References: Autonews and SaabsUnited
9 Comments:
Funny, GM had no problem jumping headfirst into the Chinese market (Lutz even bragged it was GM's future) now GM wants to rethink and renegotiate on Saab's Chinese position? Surely, any negotiations with GM will affect GM's position in China today. As usual, GM continues to be run by poor upper executive management. Must be payback for running Saab into the ground? LOL
Are all you Americans this dumb, no wonder the country is in a funk.....get your kids into school learning how to think, not like this generation listening to Republican tea party talking points and acting like a bunch of Sara Palins, Rick Perrys and the rest of the RWW (right wing wacko)
How can you critisize GM for going after business in the largest market in the world?
GM wants to jump "headfirst" into the Chinese market with brands and agreements that actually return to corporate GM and allow them to maintain a competitive advantage in terms of licenses and technology. Should GM relinquish Saab to the Chinese they'll lose all control over GM-created solutions, solutions that were a huge investment and must be recuperated. To my understanding, should GM release Saab under their current agreement, Saab's acquirer would require unrestrained wiggling room with patents and designs that GM developed and is probably implementing in the very same markets. I'm in support of GM's obstinate stance on the issue. They need to have control over their solutions at all times.
The Chinese should just buy GM because that's where it all heading anyway. GM prowess is questionable these days given their track record of failures and needed assistance. Nice bringing politics into it and branding my post as Republican. LOL
I agree but what took GM so long to express it's reluctance to share its intellectual property with potential competitors. I think there are several interesting variables at play here.
1) SAAB has been negotiating for a long time now with the Chinese to procure additional funding.
2) It is in GM's interest to see SAAB succeed somewhat since it still owns shares in SAAB and a source of revenue.
So why the #e!! did GM take so long to step and pull the plug. Why not pull the plug months ago so that SAAB can pursue other options. Something just doesn't add up. Unless GM wants to see SAAB fail.
GM didn't take long remember this was the case in the very initial shedding of SAAB, they were willing to wind down SAAB instead of haveing their IP in the hands of China it seems... ie. why Koenigsegg ( with the financial backing of BAIC) was never successful... times are hard but I don't think it's just the Chinese , I suspect GM would have the same reaction if it were Toyota or VW particulary...
Sorry I just equated Republican to dumb.
Easy thing to do Olaf. Easy.
I believe there is a difference between going into the Chinese market and getting bought out by the Chinese. So what in the world are you saying? Saab is NOT trying to get into the Chinese market and GM is blocking them; SAAB is getting bought by the Chinese! And in this case they are buying GM proprietary technology without GM's consent!
Believe me, i'm not exactly pro-GM, but theyre right on this one.
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