Ford seeks to offload Volvo in $8bn sale

The Times ^ | 7/15/2007 | Dominic O’Connell

[mnehring]

$8B for Volvo, sounds like Ford is hard up for cash. I don’t follow the subsidiaries books that closely, but it seems that it should be worth far more than that.

[stephenjohnbanker]

I would think 10-12 billion.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

$8B for Volvo, sounds like Ford is hard up for cash.

Selling assets to pay retirement benefits for socialist union workrs is not a growth strategy. They would be better off going through bankruptcy and terminating those absurd agreements.

[kinoxi]

It does sound cheap. Do you know how much they paid it for?

[ulm1]

Selling assets to pay retirement benefits for socialist union workrs is not a growth strategy. They would be better off going through bankruptcy and terminating those absurd agreements.

amen

[Ed Condon]

From the article...Ford paid $6.95 billion for Volvo in 1999, buying it from AB Volvo, the truck maker.

[mnehring]

$6.5B in ‘99,
Basically, $8B is probably accurate only if they were unable to grow that subsidiary.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/the_company_file/264506.stm

[ulm1]

It does sound cheap. Do you know how much they paid it for?

$6.95 bil , in a depressed market

[ulm1]

the GREEDY union socalists will wrwck any company

[kinoxi]

From the article.
;) thanks...

[kinoxi]

So if you factor in Dollar depreciation (not to mention inflation)...

[bajabaja]

Not too bad of a deal if you consider Daimler Benz bought Chrysler for around $30 billion (IIRC) and sold or plans to sell it now for around $7-9 billion. Ford comes away form the Volvo deal with a lot less ouch than Dr. Z.

[kinoxi]

Volvo is worth more than the stated amount IMO.

[Gritty]

[GnuHere]

“Who would you give a Volvo to?”
Haha - couldn’t stand that ad anyway.

[bajabaja]

As a 65 Mustang convertible owner, I want to point out that Ford vehicles scored very well in the new ownership survey over at JD Power. (I think Ford had more models in the top initial satisfaction category than any other maker, though that number included Mazda.) It bested a few of the well known name plates. Ford has bettered its quality and the results are beginning to show. I will dig up the JD Power report if you want, and you understand my bias and sympathy for Ford colors my viewpoint. But it ain’t all bad news, even if they are letting Volvo go cheaply. I expect this portends a significantly quarterly loss report from Ford and continued problems in the near term, however.

[kinoxi]

I’ve owned 2 Rangers with over 150,000 combined perfect miles on them. I wrecked/destroyed the first one at just under 100.

[mefistofelerevised]

Yes

[Fraxinus]

My biggest complaint about newer Ford cars is the ungreaseable front suspension, a problem with much more than Ford. The car starts to creak after a while, and is often totaled when a rinding suspension component snaps.