General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has already stated that the only brand in his company's portfolio up for sale is HUMMER, but apparently this hasn't stopped interested parties from making their play for other marques under the General's umbrella. News broke today that German solar energy company SolarWorld has offered GM nearly $1.3 billion USD for the Opel brand that's sold exclusively in Europe. Broken down by Euros, SolarWorld is offering 250 million euros cash and another 750 million in bank credits. In return it wants Opel's four production plants and research center in Ruesselsheim, as well as rights to the Opel name and all that. A few other conditions that make the proposal extremely improbable are a complete break from GM and compensation payments of 40,000 euros per Opel worker for a total of 1 billion euros. So GM would basically get a billion euros for the sale of Opel and have to pay it all right back in compensation payments. Hmmm...

SolarWorld's angle here is to break off Opel from GM completely and attempt to create the world's first, true green car company. Without the economies of scale that come with being part of the GM fold, we suspect SolarWorld wouldn't get very far on its own. This deal is so far out of whack, one analyst remarked that he checked his calendar to see if it were April 1. While GM is certainly in dire straits, the world's largest automaker has already made it clear that Opel is not for sale, and if it were, we doubt this offer would even be considered. Thanks for the tip, everyone!



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