Word: german
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...With Germans set to vote in parliamentary elections on Sept. 27, Merkel seems eager to create an exit strategy on Opel in case negotiations blow up on her. "The situation is that we have decided with a clear preference to advocate the Magna plan," Merkel told German television channel N-24 on Aug. 26. "There is a good possibility that we will come together...
...German government has been negotiating with GM over Opel since March. The U.S. automaker wants Germany to provide state guarantees for Opel of up to $6.4 billion. In return, the Germans wanted GM to agree to sell a 55% stake in Opel to the Magna-Sberbank consortium. At first GM seemed to be playing ball. It spun off Opel into a trust to protect the Rüsselsheim-based manufacturer from GM's Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. (Read "Ron Bloom Monitors GM - and Eyes the Exit...
...talks stalled and Merkel declared the entire GM-Opel mess to be "chefsache," or a matter for the boss. After lengthy and tense talks, GM negotiators finally seemed to agree to the German plan...
...manufacturing base. At the very least, GM wants to avoid creating a new competitor by providing the dowry for a tie-up among Magna, Sberbank and Opel. So on Aug. 21, the GM board rejected Merkel's plan and sent point man Smith back to Berlin. (Read "Busting Out: German Pol Plays the Cleavage Card...
...German commentators have criticized the almost amateurish way in which Merkel and Steinmeier have risked turning GM and Opel's misery into a transatlantic dispute. Neither GM nor the Obama Administration, which appointed 10 of GM's current board members, appears to like the idea of handing Opel - and GM patents - to a consortium at least partially controlled by Russian oligarchs. "Neither the Chancellor's phone call with the American President nor the Foreign Minister's with Mrs. Clinton impressed anyone," wrote the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in a commentary published on Aug. 26. "It is questionable whether their decision...