DETROIT -- General Motors completed the sale of its Swedish Saab brand to Dutch luxury sports car maker Spyker Cars Tuesday, marking the first successful sale of one of its four unwanted U.S. brands, according to Automotive News.

The transaction combines Saab Automobile and its 3,400 employees with Spyker Cars and its 110-plus workers under parent company Spyker Cars NV.

"Saab's future is now secure," Spyker CEO Victor Muller said in a statement. "We will be concentrating all of our efforts into reviving Saab and transforming it into a sustainable and profitable company with the confidence to be bold."

The sale saves Saab from what appeared to be doom after Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg Group AB backed out of a planned purchase in November. But Spyker -- whose logo bears a Latin phrase that translates, "For the tenacious, no road is impossible" -- made an offer during Saab's wind down.

Negotiations took weeks, and skeptics included GM CEO Ed Whitacre. But in late January, Spyker inked an agreement to buy Saab.

Completion of the Saab deal leaves GM facing a Feb. 28 deadline to complete a planned sale of Hummer to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Saturn and Pontiac are being shut down.

Spyker is paying GM $74 million in cash and $326 million in redeemable preference shares.