Google May Go Local With Yelp's Help

General Motors (GM) is again ready to close Saab, the quirky Swedish car maker it bought 20 years ago and has been trying to figure out what to do with ever since. The worldwide economic crisis, bailout, bankruptcy, and restructuring of the once-iconic American car maker has helped it to finally answer that question. We think. For as the New York Times reports, a GM vice president, “added that G.M. would still be willing to consider selling Saab if a new buyer were to emerge. If that does not occur, the process of winding down Saab will begin in January.” Yes, it’s very unlikely. Saab’s best hope after supercar maker Koenigsegg pulled out was supercar maker Spyker. GM claims to have been wary of Spyker’s Russian backers, and the fate of its intellectual property in a sale of the unit. Which seems odd, because a major knock against Saab under the General is that its tiny lineup hasn’t been refreshed in years. Not to mention the brand sold less than 100,000 cars last year, making it the smallest of all GM brands. And so, the Swedish quartet of Ikea, Abba, Volvo, and Saab finds itself down a member, and, while watching reruns, grandparents will have to tell their grandchildren what that funny-looking car Jerry Seinfeld is driving around Manhattan is called.

Those kids might need to be told about Six Flags, too, for the amusement park chain is currently a troubled company, reports the Wall Street Journal. The company’s chairman, Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, has spent the four years since his 2005 acquisition of the chain executing a turnaround plan. He wanted to eschew expensive thrill rides, focus on wholesome family fun, and build relationships with other big name companies like Papa John’s Pizza (PZZA) and Home Depot (HOME), to cross-market their brands. But much like his ownership of the Redskins, his chairmanship of Six Flags has been rocky, for even as he executed his plans, Six Flags’ debt load has been crushing them. Now, bondholders are thinking about ousting Synder and have protested his planned restructuring in court because it was unfavorable to their stakes. And since the paper couldn’t decide whether to make a football or a roller-coaster pun in its headline, it did both.

Google (GOOG), reports the Times, has lost a French copyright case over its much maligned book project. Though the company has been ordered to pay a $430,000 fine and take down its library in France, it’s promising to appeal the decision. Meanwhile, stateside, Google is heavily rumored to be pursuing a $500 million takeover of Yelp, the review site that uses social networking tools to generate listings and reviews of local businesses. The Times reports that though a deal is not signed, a price for the firm has been proposed. Analysts speculate that Google will use Yelp’s sales force as an entrée into local advertising markets across the country. Both sides declined to comment about the talks.

In financial news, AIG’s (AIG) aircraft unit, International Lease Finance Corporation, has seen its credit rating cut to junk thanks to the turmoil of restructuring its parent company is undergoing, reports the Times. Morgan Stanley (SXE) CEO John Mack is not taking a bonus for the third year in a row, perhaps trying to set a tone for the firm’s future after he kicks himself upstairs to become chairman of the the board, the paper also reports. And the Journal talks about the renewed possibility of a financial-transactions tax on Wall Street, looking into the pros and cons of a trading tariff.

The outage on Twitter yesterday was due to a mind-numbingly simple mistake, the Times writes. Someone managed to get the password to the domain name server—basically the computer that tells other computers how to reach the Twitter.com Web site. They redirected Twitter.com to their own “Iranian Cyber Army” site for about an hour. If Twitter made money, it surely would’ve lost a bundle due to the downtime. Luckily, the company has yet to make any money.

The Times profiles Toys “R” Us CEO Gerald Storch and his big gamble on Zhu Zhu Pets, the latest successful move in his ongoing turnaround of the troubled, debt-laden toy store. Finally, beware the military-industrial complex, President Eisenhower famously warned Americans in his farewell speech. With the exception apparently being Wisconsin truck maker Oshkosh Corp (OSK). There, the Washington Post says, several Pentagon contracts, starting with a $3.2 billion one this summer, have helped the specialty manufacturer not only avoid closing but also hire 600 new workers.