SPYKER

It's been a game of brinkmanship with one of the world's best brands almost disappearing. But at last an deal has been done that allows the Swedish government to guarantee a loan that will support the purchase of SAAB from GM by Spyker of the Netherlands.

Spyker and GM have said little about the terms of the deal which, at last, rescued SAAB from imminent closure. But pieces of information are coming together.

As GM continued its shutdown of SAAB, Genii Capital said that that was the final straw and pulled out of discussions. That was yesterday morning in Europe. By yesterday morning in the USA, GM had announced it had, at last done a deal to sell what's left of SAAB. It would, the company said, go to Spyker after all, and the shutdown would be suspended immediately.

After almost a decade of losses as GM moved SAAB from its quirky but profitable models to standardised boxes built from the GM parts bin, the final attempt to save the company has failed. As Spyker dropped out of negotiations, GM says it is starting a wind-down of operations.