Who's ready for some football? The Super Bowl is this weekend, and you know what that means -- commercials that we will all be talking about on Monday morning. In fact, we all know someone who says they watch the game for the commercials.

CBS announced earlier this week that it sold out all the in-game spots, but a few pre- and post-game spots remained. How much money did this make for CBS (CBS)? Roughly $200 million, and that is a low-end estimate. We all know why advertisers flock to the Super Bowl, as more than 98.7 million viewers tuned in last year. No matter who is in the Super Bowl, people watch the game and the commercials -- and eventually they may buy the products from the ads.

All swans were thought to be white until someone happened to come across a black one. All Toyota's were thought to be well made until someone discovered, oh, say, maybe two million cars that might not be -- part of a cautionary vehicle recall.

If you are a shareholder of Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) which past GM as the largest automobile manufacturer last year -- oddly, the same year it reported its first losses (along with everyone else) -- then you now have a first hand experience of the inherent problems or uselessness in trying to predict where trouble may arise.

Toyota (TM) is now in the driver's seat of its largest vehicle recall in its U.S. history, and with it a solid reputation is being tarnished with a few industrial-size blowtorches. Although Toyota's U.S. head has actually apologized for the accelerator issues so many Toyota models are experiencing, halting sales of new cars is crimping Toyota's sales every minute of every day. So much, in fact, that the Japanese automaker may be ceding sales to the improbable: U.S. competitors General Motors and Ford(F).

According to Bloomberg, General Motors (GRM) is close to announcing a deal to sell its Saab division to Spyker Cars. A person familiar with the matter said that an announcement could come as early as late afternoon in Sweden. In Amsterdam, trading was suspended on the automaker amid the rumors.

Spyker has offered GM roughly $75 million in cash and $325 million preferred shares in Spyker, which would come from the transaction. Reportedly GM would receive $100 million of Saab's existing liquidity.

The New York Times reports that "General Motors ended its search for a chief executive on Monday by naming Edward E. Whitacre Jr., its chairman and interim chief, to the job permanently, a person with knowledge of the decision said Monday."

And with that, GM's chairman will now be the company's permanent CEO. None of this is to cast stones at Whitacre's ethics or competence, or the work he's done at GM so far, but here's the truth: it is a pretty universally held principle of corporate governance that separating the chairmanship from the CEO is a good idea.

The Obama administration is announcing plans to impose a "financial crisis responsibility fee" on large banks that received TARP money.

The tax will seek to raise $90 billion to cover expected losses on TARP, and will be levied only on large institutions: about 50 companies will have to pay it.

At this coming week's 2010 North American International Auto Show, automakers are expected to try to put the dismal past year behind them and move on to whatever futures await.

Two of the U.S. auto industry's largest and oldest players, GM and Chrysler, tumbled into bankruptcy last year and required a handout from from the federal government to save them from liquidation. Was it worth it? Investors, analysts, and car enthusiasts will be looking for answers this week.

The Wall Street Journal used this headline to describe General Motors chairman and acting CEO Ralph Whitacre's prediction that the company would achieve profitability in 2010: GM's Bold Outlook: A Profit This Year.

"My prediction is we will be" profitable in 2010," he told reporters. "Do we have obstacles in the way? Yes. But we have a good management team and a good plan in place."

The auto industry probably doesn't want to look back on 2009. Ignore the rearview mirror; put it in drive and move forward. At least the dismal year ended on a high note. Despite a total sales decline of 21.2%, to 10.4 million units, the industry gets to celebrate a 15.1% increase in sales for the month of December, according to Autodata.

For the Detroit crowd, Ford (F) led the pack, with December sales up almost a third. General Motors (GRM) ticked 5.7% higher, with Chrysler up 3.7% for the month.

Despite the media slump that's been running alongside the worldwide recession, CBS (CBS) isn't having any trouble moving ad space for the Super Bowl.

The event is still more than a month from now, but the network reports having only a few commercial slots left for the big game. In fact, 95% of its 62 slots have moved, even with two of the most committed Super Bowl advertisers -- Pepsi (PEP) and General Motors (GRM) -- bowing out of the action. The first half is already sold out completely.

General Motors (GM) has discontinued production of Pontiacs and Saturns. Now the company wants to clear out the remaining inventory of these cars.

GM said it would pay dealers $7,000 for each car they buy before January 4, the last sales day of December. Dealers could them sell them to retail customers. If they give you the entire discount, you would be able to buy a G3 Pontiac for about $8,000 or 46% off the sticker price of about $15,000.

Ford Motor (F) has been on all the right tracks lately. The only U.S.-based automaker to not take a government handout and who had been making cars and trucks customers actually want, Ford now rules the roost for domestic cars and trucks. Even its eco-friendly stance has been in high gear with sales of its hybrid vehicles and commitment to greener automotive technology.

That is, when it isn't in some macho face-off with the still-floundering General Motors. Americans love their large V8 engines, and with GM's Camaro selling very well (an unusual high point for the company), Ford will be responding by introducing larger and more powerful V8 engine into its Mustang line to meet Camaro's challenge. In other words, the same one-upsmanship challenge that exists for decades.

General Motors said Monday it has tapped Christopher P. Liddell, chief financial officer of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), to take over its troubled finance operations. Liddell, 51, will be GM's first permanent top management hire from outside the company since it left bankruptcy protection in July.

Liddell joined Microsoft in 2005, and led the company's efforts this year to cut $3 billion in costs in light of the economic meltdown. These efforts included Microsoft's first mass layoffs, wage freezes, and cuts to employee travel. The stockpiling cash was also a priority during Liddell's tenure, which Microsoft announced last month would end on Dec. 31.

The end has come for General Motors's Saab unit, with its 3,400 employees and 1,100 dealers. Or has it?

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that Dutch auto maker Spyker Cars offered a new takeover proposal for Saab. Spyker said Sunday that it hopes the new plan will deal with the obstacles that caused talks to collapse Friday, after which GM announced that it would shutter its Swedish brand.

When it comes to selling companies, General Motors has had some bad luck lately. The company pulled its deal for Opel off the market. Then its proposed sale of Saturn failed (the company is in the process of being liquidated).

As for this week, there was another dead deal: the sale of Saab to Spyker Cars. And yes, Saab will now be unwound.

What happened here? So far, GM and Spyker have not provided any details. Basically, there were some "issues" that couldn't be resolved.