GM Strikes $400M Deal to Sell Saab

GM has reached a deal to sell its otherwise doomed Saab brand to Dutch luxury car maker Spyker Cars NV for $74 million in cash and $326 million in preferred stock. The deal is dependent on Sweden agreeing to guarantee a $563 million European Investment Bank loan to the Swedish Saab brand. The sale is expected to close in February, Bloomberg reports.

Spyker shares have risen more than 80% since rumors of the deal first broke last week, and trading of them was halted this afternoon on the news. The sale could save up to 3,500 jobs at Saab’s main Swedish factory, which seemed doomed just a month ago. "We said, 'Just show up with the money and you can have it,'" GM CEO Ed Whitacre said at the time, "and they haven't shown up with the money." (More General Motors stories.)