Ford has announced that it is in negotiations with China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd. to sell Volvo. If the deal does go though, Ford has no plans on retaining any ownership of Volvo.
Lewis Booth, Ford Motor Company executive vice president and chief financial officer stated "Ford believes Geely has the potential to be a responsible future owner of Volvo and to take the business forward while preserving its core values and the independence of the Swedish brand. But there is much work that needs to be completed in the more substantive discussions that are agreed to take place. We have no specific timeline to conclude the discussions."
Stephen Odell, Volvo CEO also stated that "Volvo's management team welcomes today's announcement as a positive step forward. At Volvo, we are continuing to keep our attention firmly fixed on engineering and building great Volvo cars, to reduce our cost base and to return the business to sustainable profitability at the earliest possible opportunity."
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Comments (11)
Makes you wonder why the European brands just don't band together?
Posted by Brian | October 28, 2009 12:02 PM
Posted on October 28, 2009 12:02
Shame Ford could not figure out how to be a global brand and invent a place for Volvo that made sense. Probably it is best that they sell it off since they clearly do not have the talent to figure out how to integrate businesses (30 years of buying brands and bungling integration). My hope is that Ford finally finds the focus and brains to become a dynamic and innovative car company again. Some of the most recent Ford/Lincoln models seem to indicate this may be so. Build something I WANT to buy and I will buy it. Build some mediocre car driven by spreadsheet and I will not.
Posted by Victor | October 28, 2009 12:53 PM
Posted on October 28, 2009 12:53
Here comes China, buying up everything they can.
Posted by Noya | October 28, 2009 3:16 PM
Posted on October 28, 2009 15:16
Well their goes vovlvo's great safety record down the tube. Anything China makes = cheap garbage. Hell just look at the stuff that comes from china. Now japan knows how to make long lasting quality stuff Sony, Samsung, Toyota Honda are all just a prime example of that.
Posted by SteelCity1981 | October 28, 2009 5:00 PM
Posted on October 28, 2009 17:00
We are the best at creating competitors.
Posted by VaD | October 28, 2009 8:13 PM
Posted on October 28, 2009 20:13
Oh gee...here I find more stupid remarks from ignorant, ethnocentric rednecks. Should I even *try* to back up Geely? Nah...I'm just wasting my "breath." Oh well; free press!
Posted by lotsofTRidiots | October 29, 2009 7:23 AM
Posted on October 29, 2009 07:23
Is that you Noya?
If you feel like you are wasting your breath, stop breathing. 2 problems solved. I guarantee we won't miss you or mention you. Ever....
One less keyboard klown in the world is a very good thing.
Posted by Trooper Bri | October 29, 2009 3:10 PM
Posted on October 29, 2009 15:10
Another brand shot to hell. No redneck comment, just the truth. If Geely lets Volvo run itself (and buys it to adopt their technology and best practices to their cars), however, things may be different.
Posted by Kawi | October 30, 2009 1:46 PM
Posted on October 30, 2009 13:46
LOL. You guys are failsauce. China is buying up foreign brands because they want to become more credible in the market. There's no way in hell they would dare compromise the brand value of Volvo by making them unsafe, that would be a waste of billions of dollars in goodwill value attributed to the brand.
Posted by mlkmnz | October 31, 2009 2:48 AM
Posted on October 31, 2009 02:48
^^^^^ Yeah say that to all the companies that china business has bought up in the past few years from other nations that had a good track record and turned it into crap in a matter of a few years.
I can think of one IBM's pc division that got bought by a China company that now goes by the name of Lenovo. That's just one example of how once a good quality brand from another nation has now turned into crap.
Posted by SteelCity1981 | November 2, 2009 12:39 AM
Posted on November 2, 2009 00:39
Thanks a lot americans... from Sweden. Volvo is a national pride in our little country, amounting to about 10% of our industry. The automobile section was sold to Ford with the hope that platform-sharing should make it more profitable. Volvo automobile never lost money, the profits where deemed a bit to low but never in the red.
We all know whats going to happen when volvo is sold to Geely. Soon they will move all production to China, and a few years later most development too.
Posted by Perzy | November 15, 2009 1:30 AM
Posted on November 15, 2009 01:30