I first heard the story during the 1980’s, when the Japanese were going to own us all.
I knew they’d overpaid for damned near everything they bought here. When Bridgestone bought Firestone, they paid the equivelent of $78/share for a near-bankrupt tire company that had just recalled almost a million tires (the Firestone 500.)
Firestone had no radial products, its plants were old and the labor union was on strike every 12 to 18 months.
Bridgestone bought Firestone only because Pirelli of Italy wanted to buy it.