In what has been described as a very unfortunate situation by both respective camps, Koenigsegg Group AB has terminated their planned purchase of GM’s Swedish arm SAAB. Now that Koenigsegg has pulled out of negotiations SAAB’s future hangs in the balance as it remains unclear whether or not GM can afford to hold on to SAAB as they have done with Opel.

Koenigsegg has been less than forthcoming about the specific reasons for their decision to  terminate the purchase of SAAB, all Koenigsegg have said is that they had “come to the painful and difficult conclusion” that buying SAAB simply wasn’t possible anymore. GM too have been cagey about the recent developments, their President and CEO Fritz Henderson merely stated: “We’re obviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the Saab purchase.” something that probably wont make SAAB’s thousands of employees feel any better.

This is the latest of GM’s deals which has gone awry, following hot on the heels of GM unilaterally deciding to call off the sale of Opel to Canada’s Magna. Detroit auto tycoon Roger Penske also recently killed a deal with GM in which he planned to salvage GM’s fading Saturn brand. The number of GM deals that have gone wrong seems to climb every month, so much so that one wonders if there is more to these deals.

The US economy and indeed their auto industry has just begun showing signs of throwing off the shackles of the recession. Now that the economic future doesn’t look as bleak as it has done recently it could be the case that GM is seeing their various units up for sale as potential money makers and thus not interested in selling anymore?

Any excuse to put a picture of a Koenigsegg in