Former owner Peter Sauber on Friday stepped in to take over BMW Sauber only two months after the sale of the Formula One team to Swiss firm Qadback Investments Ltd was publicly announced.

Qadback Investments bought the team in September for around 80 million euros (116.8 million US dollars) - a purchase seen as pivotal in safe-guarding the team's future after BMW's announcement in July 2009 that it would quit the sport at the end of the year.

BMW's announcement Friday contained no explanation as to why the deal with Qadback, a firm which represents the interests of several influential families in Europe and the Middle East, came to an abrupt end.

However after the deal on Thursday, Peter Sauber, 66, said he was relieved to have been able to step in and thus save the jobs that appeared to be under threat at the company's headquarters in Hinwil, Switzerland.

"I'm relieved a solution has been found," said Sauber, who has been involved in Formula One since the 1970s, eventually selling his Sauber team, founded in 1993, to BMW in 2005.

"This way the site at Hinwil, and most of the jobs, will be maintained."

According to the agreement the team's workforce will be reduced from 388 to 250.

No financial details of the deal were revealed, and Sauber's purchase is on the condition that the team is registered on the Formula One world championship in 2010.

A decision by the sport's ruling body FIA on who will fill the space recently left vacant by Toyota, who pulled out of the sport, has yet to be made.

BMW said in July it was pulling out of Formula One because of rising costs, espcially as regards fuel.

After three promising seasons in the world championship BMW Sauber had a mediocre 2009 season, finishing sixth in the constructors standings with 36 points.

There is no news whether BWM Sauber's current drivers Nick Heidfeld of Germany or Robert Kubica from Poland will continue racing for the new team.