Latest Saab story (2011, auto, convertible, sports car)
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Saab Automobile threw in the towel on Monday, filing for liquidation after its hopes of receiving a life-saving investment from Chinese investors collapsed in the face of opposition from its former owner, General Motors.
Will another firm try to buy the name and give it a future? Or is it the end of the road?
One problem I see is (at least in the US) most of the traditional SAAB buyers have moved on to other brands. Even if they have new models, will ther be any buyers?
Saab as a company isn't worth anything without the intellectual property licenses that are controlled by GM. GM won't let that intellectual property pass on to a Chinese manufacturer that they will simply end up in competition with in the lucrative Chinese market. The Spyker deal made sense for GM as they wouldn't really be competing with each other. Overall, this deal was never about Saab itself for the Chinese, it was about that intellectual property, Saab was really just baggage.
Saab as a company isn't worth anything without the intellectual property licenses that are controlled by GM. GM won't let that intellectual property pass on to a Chinese manufacturer that they will simply end up in competition with in the lucrative Chinese market. The Spyker deal made sense for GM as they wouldn't really be competing with each other. Overall, this deal was never about Saab itself for the Chinese, it was about that intellectual property, Saab was really just baggage.
So why did Ford sell Volvo to a Chinese company? Didn't they care about their technology? Think the Taurus is based on the Volvo S80?
So why did Ford sell Volvo to a Chinese company? Didn't they care about their technology? Think the Taurus is based on the Volvo S80?
Ford was concerned over the same thing, but since they were controlling the entire sales process they were able to work around it. Basically Geely (the Chinese company that now owns Volvo) only purchased the intellectual property that Volvo itself exclusively developed and owned, which wasn't much. They then extended the ability for Volvo to continue to use Ford technology under licensing, but conferred no ownership rights to that technology. Basically, Geely can use Ford tech for Volvo's as it sees fit, but Ford can block its use for anything else. The worth of Volvo went well beyond the technology as it was a somewhat healthy and global brand when Ford sold it.
When GM sold Saab to Spyker they agreed to let Spyker retain the rights to the technology with GM having a veto authority over its future use and transfer. The problem is, the only value in Saab as a company is that GM developed/owned technology. If GM pursued the same arrangement that Ford did, Saab wouldn't be worth anything as the 9-5 and 9-4X are entirely dependent on GM intellectual property. GM also has a much stronger interest in defending the Chinese market than does Ford as China is now GM's largest market. These same fears on GM's part are what killed the deal with a Chinese company that tried to acquire Opel back in 2009.
But I think if they wanted there could be a future for the factory just like Valmet Automotive.
Valmet in Finland have a factory that does niche or overflow runs of cars for manufacturers. Valmet did a bit of Porsche production for over a decade and makes other low quantity cars for manufacturers.
I could see the Saab factory doing the same, such as taking a GM production line for a car that is hot at the moment or doing some niche production of a convertible or sports car for some manufacturer.
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