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Fiat has increased its bid to buy Opel and its UK brand Vauxhall from General Motors.

According to Germany's Economy minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Fiat has also provided more detail about capital contributions and risk-sharing.

"Interestingly, Fiat has improved its offer once again and we've received a more thorough blueprint from them in the last few hours," said zu Guttenberg. "We're sensing a willingness to negotiate further from all sides."

German government offic...Read the full article

Autocar:

Fiat has said it will cut fewer than 10,000 jobs if its bid succeeds, but will close one of Opel's four German factories. Magna and RHJ International have pledged not to close any of the German Opel plants.

 Honest at least. 10,000? That would be Bochum, the Design Centre (minus Styling?) and bits and bobs from Kaiserslautern and logistic areas then. Gotta do something with the engineering staff from Chrysler. Magna (the Russians in reality) have pretty much the same plan, just don't make it so obvious. In their case gotta give the staff in Graz something to do.

Marchionne was so confident that Fiat's was the only bid they would accept but feels the need to increase it at the last minute? His confidence must be slipping.