Today is Saab’s last battle for life, as General Motors reconsiders their decision with the Swedish government influencing them and Spyker making a new offer.

The Swedish government will be talking with GM officials today in Trollhaten. This meeting will involve union representatives, authorities and Saab. While they will be discussing the situation with GM, the government says they will not put their own money into Saab. Swedish enterprise minister Maud Olofsson said “We don’t have the expertise and we don’t have the money.” They have, however, guaranteed a European Investment Bank loan (Presumably to whoever buys Saab), and aid for the resulting unemployed workers if Saab is indeed shut down.

The previous estimate of how much people would lose their jobs from this was 3400, not including dealership workers, but now the estimate has taken sub-contractors and other dependents into account, and it has gone up to over 8000. I believe this still doesn’t include Saab’s 1100 dealers worldwide.

As for Spyker’s new offer, General Motors has until 5:00 PM EST today to respond to it. General Motors doesn’t want to release why Spyker’s original offer was declined. Giving Saab a bit more hope is the fact that reports say more parties have expressed their interest since Spyker made their renewed offer. There’s no info on who these parties are and when GM’s deadline for responding to them is.

If Saab is indeed shut down, GM says they will honour warranties, and provide parts and services to Saab owners worldwide. They have also said they will not be selling off any assets of Saab, such as the new 9-5 or 9-4x.

So then, we will most likely know by the end of the day what will happen to Saab. General Motors is already winding down the company, as they want to get it shut down as quickly as possible, but they will stop the process if they agree on a new offer. Let’s hope for the best.

Source: Autocar, New York Times via Jalopnik and Inside Line