Unless you pay absolutely no attention to business news, you've probably heard about the trials and travails of the american auto industry. You know: massive employee buyouts, crippling legacy benefits costs, the inability to, you know, sell many cars.
You've probably heard how maverick investor Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corporation bought a large minority chunk of GM and started agitating for a number of signficant internal reforms. You may have even heard of a possible 3-way Nissan - Renault - GM worldwide alliance (exact structure unknown) to bring the Ghosn magic to an ailing GM.
Meanwhile, FoMoCo has been playing the wallflower to GM's prom queen. No headlines, no mergers, no dramatic news stories. Well, there was this story on how S&P cut Ford's debt rating deeper into junk status. And now this - Ford's slashing its dividend and cutting the salaries of its directors. Here's what an analyst has to say:
“This is a signal that things are worse than probably everybody, both internally and externally, thought.”
It's said that animals can smell infection and run to avoid it. I wonder what Ford's managers and engineers are doing?
Friday, July 14, 2006
Funny Little Observation
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1 comment:
Ghosn had sense enough to recognize Kerkorian's manipulating for what it was and put the kibosh to such foolish talk.
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