Earlier Wednesday morning, General Motors announced that it lost $4.3 billion in the first half of 2009. The automaker struggled as it tried to emerge from bankruptcy protection while repaying government loans. Of course, the downturn in GM's US sales didn't help much either. During the first half of 2009, GM recorded revenue of $557.5 billion. These totals were achieved as the company turned to fresh-start accounting, which gives companies the chance to completely revalue their assets following bankruptcy. By its own estimation, GM is the largest company to go through the fresh-start process.

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 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.

While the day after Thanksgiving in the US is usually a light trading day, thanks to people being on vacation, traveling, Black Friday shopping, and their being more concerned about being with family, today's market has been active with people reacting to recent troubling news coming out of Dubai.

Dubai, Wednesday, announced that it was asking to delay payment on billions of dollars of debt owed to Dubai World and Nakheel, a major developer in Dubai (you may remember those large palm shaped islands off Dubai for celebrities and the ultra-rich). Fear about Dubai writedowns has affected the price of oil, despite large supplies. Investors are worrying that the ripple effect of Dubai's debt problems will spread to other banks, creating another crisis.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,309.77 -154.63 (-1.48%)
S&P 500 1,091.47 -19.16 (-1.73%)
Nasdaq 2,138.44 -37.61 (-1.73%)

It looks like General Motors won't be unloading SAAB to Swedish company Koenigsegg Group, the automaker announced just a while ago. GM CEO Fritz Henderson expressed disappointment, saying "we're obviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the SAAB purchase... given the sudden change in direction, we will take the next several days to assess the situation and will advise on the next steps next week."

China has taken its first major step into the U.S. car market as General Motors announced it had finalized a deal to sell off its Hummer truck brand to Chinese auto manufacturer Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery.

Under the deal, GM will continue to make the trucks no later than 2010. While a deal has been reached, it is still going to be up to Chinese regulators to approve the deal and decide if the brand can be profitable and fit into the country's overall national strategy to improve energy efficiency.

This morning, General Motors (GMGMQ) -- or is it Government Motors? -- announced that it will sell its Saab unit to a consortium led by Koenigsegg Automotive AB. The purchaser is a luxury carmaker, which produces roughly 12 custom-made models each year.

In a memo of understanding, GM stated that the sale will include a $600 million funding commitment from the European Investment Bank -- which is guaranteed by the Swedish government. The sale is believed to be completed by the end of the third quarter.

The Swedish government said it "is not prepared to own car factories," The New York Times reported Monday -- a stance widely seen as the government's refusal to bail out the iconic Saab Automobile company, which is owned by General Motors.

If the Swedish government's decision does not change, that would mean that mostly-socialist Sweden will not provide loans to a major, domestic automaker, while the mostly-capitalist United States will. General Motor's (NYSE: GM) shares closed Monday up 17 cents to $3.35.

Investors may legitimately ask: how can this be? The answer isn't simple.

Saab, a unit of General Motors (NYSE: GM) has filed for protection from its creditors after GM announced plans to do away with the brand by 2010 and the Swedish government politely declined to take it over.

The reorganization filing, which is different from a traditional bankruptcy, would provide the company with protection from its creditors while it looks to restructure and seek additional financing.

Saab Managing Director Jan-Ake Jonsson said the company has explored all available options and found a formal reorganization to be the best way to create a "truly independent entity that is ready for investment."

The ink is barely dry on the $13.4 billion in "loans" provided by the Bush administration at the end of 2008, but General Motors (NYSE: GM) is already talking about needing more. CEO Richard Wagoner says the company may look to secure additional government cheese in March -- earlier reports had suggested that GM believed the $13.4 billion would be enough to survive through 2009.

How does GM plan to demonstrate viability? It will need to secure broader concessions from the United Auto Workers union and, hilariously, try to convince bond holders to swap their debt for equity in one of the greater cash-burning machines in history. Good luck with that one!

Wagoner also said that GM is still looking to find a buyer for Saab. The company has denied problems in generating interest in the brand among potential buyers -- I'll believe someone is interested in buying Saab when there's a done deal. Similarly, GM has failed to generate any serious interest in Hummer, despite trying really, really hard to find a buyer.

GM's management has been extremely optimistic in terms of its "forward-looking statements," but so far it's all been bluster. Government officials should keep that in mind when GM brass shows up in March to demonstrate a plan for viability.

Now that the big three CEOs are sealing up their second week on Capitol Hill trying to convince U.S. lawmakers that their companies collectively need tens of billions to survive, what do they plan on doing internally? As in, what changes could be made to the product lines of all three automakers to fit a changed marketplace and a consumer and business populace that has hit the reset switch on what they want out of an automobile? How about jettisoning some brands that aren't core assets? That's the ticket -- or at least a big part of it.

Just which brands are at serious risk of going away? Brands from all three domestic automakers have been bandied about this week, and with 112 models offered from 15 brands just from the three domestic automakers, the industry clearly needs some fat trimmed. The three U.S. automakers now have only a 47% market share in the U.S., down from 62% just five years ago. Just imagine the design, engineering and support a complex product portfolio like that requires in terms of investment. Is that sustainable? Apparently not, and the big three are fighting for their lives in part because of it.

Right off the bat is General Motors Corp.'s (NYSE: GM) Hummer brand. The king of masculine brands has shriveled into virtual nothingness over the past year as consumers stayed away due to higher gas prices, which have now fallen heavily back down. Still, the damage to Hummer is most likely irreversible, and it will be one of GM's first brands to go away. Ford Motor Corp.'s (NYSE: F) luxury Volvo brand is also a prime contender. Volvo sales have fallen 28% this year as customers flock to lower-priced vehicles while tightening those wallets and purse strings.

Just in case the US Congress will not bailout Ford (NYSE:F) and GM (NYSE: GM), the car companies are turning to the Swedish government to help their Volvo and Saab units. The government there does not want to see a lot of lost jobs, so it might just put up some money to help out the US firms.

According to the FT, "Stephen Odell, Volvo's chief executive, and Saab's managing director Jan-Ake Jonsson have separately spoken to Maud Olofsson, Sweden's industry minister, and other officials about securing funds." The American firms have decided to sell the businesses, so Sweden may need to keep them on life support until that happens.

The move shows how desperate the US car companies are. While they may not be able to get the US government to provide them aid, they can appeal to Sweden on the basis that Saab and Volvo are huge employers in the country. Real trouble for the division could raise unemployment in the Scandinavian country causing it to pour unemployment and other social services capital into its economy,

Americans begging in Sweden. Nice picture.

Douglas A. McIntyre is en editor at 247wallst.com.

General Motors (NYSE: GM) is considering dumping Saturn, Pontiac, and Saab in an attempt to cut costs as it looks at a restructuring and government bailout. According to Bloomberg, "General Motors Corp., working to cut costs to win $12 billion in government loans, is studying whether to shed its Saturn, Saab and Pontiac brands in addition to Hummer, people familiar with the matter said."

It may appear to be a good idea, but it is not.

While there would be some short-term savings in production and labor costs it misses some potential problems. That analysis leaves aside legal agreements GM has with dealers. It also fails to look at what the hundreds of thousand of people who own cars from the three nameplates would do. While GM can provide them service and honor warranties, most of these customers bought cars from the brands because they liked them. The cars were their "first choice."

There is no guarantee that these consumers will stick with another GM brand; they could move to any of the firm's competitors to find autos that are more like the ones they bought from the shuttered GM operations. Or, they could simply be so unhappy with GM for the decision that they would walk away from doing business with the big car company.

Closing brands won't fix GM. Getting a new union contract and cutting debt are the only options.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.