We nearly abandoned all hope (or fear) that China might buy a Western brand. The Ford-Volvo-Geely deal was on the ropes, supposedly over intellectual property worries. We didn’t believe it.
Finally, FoMoCo officially announced that they had inspected all the bids. Geely came out on top, says the Wall Street Journal.
China’s Zhejiang Geely Group Holdings Co. was bestowed the official title “preferred bidder for Ford’s luxury Volvo brand.” Apparently, Geely coughed up the better deal Ford wanted. Now the two sides will enter “more detailed and focused negotiations.”
Ford CFO Lewis Booth said that “any prospective sale would have to ensure that Volvo has the resources, including the capital investment, necessary to further strengthen the business and build its global franchise, while enabling Ford to continue to focus on and implement our core ONE Ford strategy.” Not a word about safeguarding intellectual property.
Ford had also been in discussions with China’s BAIC and the Crown Group, led by former Ford director Michael Dingman. They are out of the race.
China & Intellectual Property worries goes together like peanut butter & jelly.
That’s the end of Volvo. Buy, buy Volvo. I had 122 in the same off white as in the picture. Sad.
In Carmaker’s Collapse, a Microcosm of South Korea’s Woes
NYTimes
“Chinese company BOE got the technology they wanted. All we got was layoffs,” said Hwang Pil-sang, a Hydis worker.”
“We trusted their promise to help us into the vast Chinese market,” Mr. Yang said. “In the end, they kept none of their promises, and they got what they wanted: our technology.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/world/asia/24seoul.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=asia
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After chinese company get the technology they wanted. All volvo workers in sweden will layoffs.
After chinese company get volvo technology, Chinese company kill US auto industry by cheap price volvo copys.
Maybe they could buy my 760 too.
WOW Talk about drama!
Our Green Yuppie (GY) class has been on life support with the near death of Volvo, Saab, and Saturn. Glad to hear China is throwing them a lifeline.
The Prius and Insight have been helpful but have not proven to completely satiate the GY market.
CarPerson , I disagree. Volvos were decent cars from 60’s to 2000. There was enough performance and handling for less money then BMW, Audi and Benz. Quality of their cars was even better then Japanese all through 60-70’s. Actually it Volvo that started to elevate quality and safety in auto industry.
Looks like I’ll be turning in my Volvo next year when the lease is up. My first and last. Sad.
Bertel, how does ChangAn figure into all this? Do you think a final sale to Geely means a merger/takeover/purchase of ChangAn is planned?