The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2010–2011
Saab survived WWII, the Cold War, and GM — but not a Dutch sports-car maker
GM owned Saab for 20 years and sold it for $74M in 2010. Spyker Cars bought it, ran out of cash in 18 months, and Saab filed for bankruptcy in December 2011.
Saab Automobile · General Motors · Spyker Cars · 2011-12
What happened
Saab Automobile, the Swedish carmaker founded in 1945 as a division of the aerospace company Saab AB, was owned by General Motors from 1990 to 2010. Under GM, Saab was chronically unprofitable — it lost money in most years and was a perennial candidate for closure. In January 2010, GM sold Saab to Spyker Cars, a tiny Dutch sports-car manufacturer, for $74 million.
Spyker's CEO Victor Muller promised to revive Saab with Chinese investment and a new product line. The reality was that Spyker had almost no revenue of its own and could not fund Saab's operations. Production at the Trollhättan factory stopped in April 2011 when suppliers, unpaid for months, refused to deliver parts. A brief rescue deal with Chinese automaker Youngman collapsed when GM blocked the transfer of Saab technology.
Saab Automobile filed for bankruptcy on 19 December 2011. The Trollhättan factory, which had employed 3,700 people, was shut. The Saab name, which had been building cars for 66 years, was gone. GM later blocked the use of the Saab brand on any new vehicles, ensuring the marque would never return.
Why it happened
- GM sold Saab to a company with no capacity to run it — Spyker made fewer than 100 cars a year and had no manufacturing scale.
- The $74M sale price was less than the cost of closing the factory; GM was paying someone to take the problem away.
- GM's blocking of the Chinese technology transfer was the final blow — without Chinese capital, Saab had no path to survival.
- Saab had been unprofitable under GM for 20 years; the brand had no product pipeline, no competitive advantage, and no reason for a customer to choose it over a BMW or Audi.
The lesson
Selling a failing business to a buyer with no resources does not save it — it delays bankruptcy by 18 months. GM should have closed Saab in 2009; instead it created a slower, more public failure.
Aftermath
The Trollhättan factory was acquired by NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden), which produced a small number of electric vehicles before being absorbed by Evergrande's auto division. The Saab aerospace and defence company (Saab AB) continues to operate and is unrelated to the car brand. The Saab automobile marque is effectively extinct.
Sources
- Saab Automobile — Wikipedia (GM owned 1990–2010; sold to Spyker Cars January 2010 for $74M; production stopped April 2011; bankruptcy filed 19 December 2011; Trollhättan factory 3,700 employees; GM blocked Chinese technology transfer)
- CAR Magazine — Saab files for bankruptcy: the end of the Swedish saga (19 December 2011; Saab Automobile AB, Saab Automobile Tools AB, Saab Powertrain AB filed in Vänersborg District Court; GM blocked Pang Da/Youngman deal; Spyker bought Saab 27 January 2010 for $74M; only 11,000 Saabs built in 2011 vs 190,000 capacity)
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