“Swag,” from annoying Internet memes to being dropped every 12 seconds by rappers whose lungs might implode into a fine powdery dust if they don’t, is an entirely overplayed concept. But when an underdog carmaker—one favored by said rappers, incidentally—sues the world’s largest carmaker over the supposed death of its progeny, there’s some righteous usage of hip-hop braggadocio involved. Get that dirt off yo’ shoulder, Victor Muller.
You may remember Muller from the car company Spyker, which fought GM in a tug-of-war over the remnants of Saab. He is now claiming that GM purposely bankrupted Saab by blocking its sale to Chinese investors; he’s suing GM for the seemingly ludicrous amount of three billion dollars. GM was “determined to scuttle the deal by any means necessary,” said an official statement from Spyker.
If you were as worn down over Saab news as the rest of the automotive industry, here’s some gratuitous catching up: Spyker was determined to sell Saab to the Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Group, but GM blocked the deal. The world’s largest automaker didn’t want its technology falling into the hands of Chinese companies that it isn’t partnered with—the Saab 9-5 and 9-4x were all built on GM platforms–and that would have clashed with GM’s partnership with SAIC. According to Spyker, though, GM is obligated to support the 9-4x through 2014, so GM’s refusal to support the deal was “intentionally false.”
And the three billion dollars figure? That is how much Saab would have been worth if the deal was successful. Spyker spent six months and thousands in fees preparing the lawsuit, so it’s unlikely Muller will be backing down. In Muller’s words, those idiots “had it coming,” he said in a statement. “They never thought we would survive,” he said. “Well, Spyker’s still here. They assumed Spyker would end up in the graveyard with Saab and obviously that didn’t happen.”
That last statement definitely smacks of rap-battle posturing: Muller survived the haters and is now fighting harder than ever. That’s got to be “swag,” or something. I don’t know. Do people still say “fo’shizzle?” Who’s “Snoop Lion?”
Source: Automotive News
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