More often than not, when big corporations announce that they've come to an agreement with another company on a major financial transaction, the finalizing of the deal is but a formality.

Not so much with General Motors which watched a deal go sour for Saturn, aborted a deal for Opel and Vauxhall and walked away from an early deal to unload Saab. And who knows what will end up happening with Hummer.

But GM announced today that the deal to sell the Saab brand to Dutch super-car maker, Spyker, has been finalized. When GM said in a statement today, "Going forward, Saab and Spyker will operate under the Spyker (AMS:SPYKR) umbrella, and Spyker will adopt responsibility for Saab operations," you could almost hear the sigh of relief.