Ford agrees to sell Jaguar, Land Rover
I added a new category - Economics - because there's some things going on in this country, and the world, that are scaring me. This is just the writing on the wall.
The full story is here, but I'm including the relevant portion below:
After spending billions of dollars on Jaguar and Land Rover, Ford Motor Co. gave up on the storied British automakers Wednesday and unloaded them to India's Tata Motors Ltd. for a mere third of the original purchase price.The deal is another sign of the growing economic muscle of India and something of an economic role reversal, with two icons of British industrial might expanding the global reach of a premier conglomerate in the former British colony.
Ford nets about $1.7 billion, a far cry from what it paid for the properties -- $2.5 billion for Jaguar in 1989 and $2.7 billion for Land Rover in 2000. Counting losses and product development, analysts figure Ford spent more than $10 billion on the brands.
Those acquisitions, like General Motors' purchase of Saab and Chrysler's entanglement with Mitsubishi, came when cash was rolling in at the U.S. automakers as drivers snapped up cars and pricey pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.
But Ford's fortunes have changed, with slumping U.S. sales and billions in losses. The fire-sale price comes as the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker concentrates on its main brands.
Now let me say this, first off - I'm not an economist, and I'm not going to front here like I'll become one. I could do a detailed financial analysis of this deal, and provide you with some historical information about Tata Motors - but you have Google & Wikipedia for that. Suffice it to say that Tata Motors is part of a much larger Indian multinational conglomerate - the Tata Group, and they've been doing big things, for years. This IMHO is just a sign that US economic dominance is slipping, as the BRIC's (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are positioned to fully take advantage of our economic woes, and move from "developing" status, into major economic powerhouse. They've been "creeping on the come up" for the last, say 20 years. Now - time to cash in.
Hmph...I've been sorta easing by a lot of the things I've learned about the global economy in the last 2-3 years - focused outside this space (B-school, for the MBA) but lightly brushing over them. Time to tie some things up, and bring them home.
Meanwhile, you may want to go back and check out some old posts I put in the category of Economics.....it may show you where I'm headed.