MILAN (AP) -- Italian automaker Fiat said Friday that its offer for Germany's Opel calls for less than 10,000 job cuts in Europe -- far fewer than many experts were expecting.
Fiat's statement was its first official comment on the offer presented Wednesday for Opel and the British brand Vauxhall, both units of General Motors Corp.
Fiat said the job cuts would come throughout Europe. That means "the impact for the workforce in Germany ... would be significantly lower than speculated," it said, referring to press reports that there would be 18,000 redundancies in Germany.
The company did not elaborate.
It aims to merge Opel and Vauxhall with Fiat Group Automobiles to create the largest European automaker. It already has a deal to become Chrysler's controlling shareholder.