Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is having to defend the sale of the troubled carmaker Opel to a Canadian-Russian consortium, just days after hailing the deal, The New York Times reported. Criticism grew sharper over the weekend on the terms of the deal, which was announced on Thursday in Berlin, beginning with unions that said more jobs would be cut than expected. Among the most vocal critics were government representatives of the Opel Trust, which was established in May to oversee the search for a buyer of 65 percent of Opel.

Spansion Inc. has asked a bankruptcy judge to put a halt to a patent infringement suit filed against it in Germany by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. over the manufacture and sale of flash memory chips, citing the automatic stay in the technology company's bankruptcy proceedings, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Frederick "Fritz" Henderson won't make a specific recommendation on what to do with the company's Opel unit when he meets with GM directors Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new board, conducting only its second formal meeting since it was formed after GM's July release from bankruptcy protection, could ultimately decide to postpone a decision on the German operations until later in September, these people said.

The leaders of Germany, France and the U.K. called Thursday for the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations to look at ways to cap bankers' bonuses and come up with rules on remuneration in the financial sector at its summit in Pittsburgh Sept. 24, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move marks a change from U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s previous stance regarding imposing mandatory caps on bankers' bonuses. While he agreed with France and Germany on the need to link bonuses to the bank's long-term performance, and not to short-term speculative gains, Mr.

Germany is calling on the world’s largest economies to adopt joint measures to prevent banks from becoming “too big to fail” and holding governments to ransom in future financial crises, the Financial Times reported. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said on Monday – following a meeting in Berlin with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France – that steps to prevent excessive risk-taking by large banks should rank high on the agenda of the summit of the Group of 20 largest economies in Pittsburgh later this month.

The German government may be willing to finance a restructuring of Adam Opel GmbH to avoid an insolvency of the troubled General Motors Co. European unit, The Deal Pipeline reported. Berlin has not yet been asked but might be willing to finance a GM-led restructuring after general elections Sept. 27, Financial Times Deutschland wrote. Germany might also reportedly be willing to support a controversial offer for Opel from Brussels financial investor RHJ International SA if it promises to only hold the company temporarily or if it teams with a major auto manufacturer.

The German government might drop its opposition to Belgian-based financial investor RHJ International as a buyer for General Motors' European unit Opel, Bild newspaper reported on Thursday. Berlin could be willing to accept RHJ if it teamed up with an international partner from the car industry, the mass-selling daily said, without saying where it obtained the information. The German government had so far favored Canadian car-parts supplier Magna over RHJ, which aims to shrink the carmaker to return it to profit.

General Motors Co. is now considering whether it should retain its Opel and Vauxhall operations in Europe, a strategic reversal that raises new questions about the struggling car maker's direction and creates complications with the governments of Germany and Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported.

General Motors Co is considering a plan to raise funding to keep Opel as an alternative to selling the unit to Magna International, sources with knowledge of the deliberations said on Monday, Reuters reported. The development comes against a backdrop of escalating labor tensions and political stakes over GM's slow-moving effort to sell control of Opel and its British affiliate, Vauxhall. The Obama administration pledged on Monday to stay out of GM's choice of a buyer for Opel, while union leaders in Germany put more pressure on the U.S. automaker to make a decision.

The German government isn't planning a new car-incentive program to replace its €5 billion ($7.2 billion) cash-for-clunkers scheme, which runs out later this year, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. He was speaking after local newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the ruling government's grand coalition parties are working on a replacement for the car-incentive program, spurred by fears that car makers and suppliers will suffer when the program ends.