Earlier today, Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) announced that it had chosen to move into more "focused" talks with India automaker, Tata Motors Ltd. (NYSE: TTM) over a possible sale of its Jaguar and Land Rover units.Ford, which sold its controlling stake in its Aston Martin unit last year for $931 million in cash and stock, has been searching for the right suitor for Jaguar and Land Rover. Although there are no details on the Tata discussions being made public, last month people close to the talks stated that the bids were running between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
Ford spent a combined $5.2 billion for Jaguar and and Land Rover when it first took over the units.
One group that is cheering for Tata is Jaguar's main labor union, Unite. Unite has come out and stated that it would prefer that if the company does get sold that Tata would be the eventual buyer. The two units combined have around 15,300 employees in the U.K. and its unions are trying to make sure that any possible ownership changes will not affect the employment levels.
It is no secret that Ford has been going through some tough times lately, and selling off Jaguar and Land Rover is all part of the company's plan to try to return to profitability by 2009. Ford is hoping that after it sells Jaguar and Land Rover that it will be able to maintain its parts supply relationship with the new owners of the companies.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-03-2008 @ 12:46PM
Texter Vaid said...
Its about time! Ford nearly ruined both these marquees and ran them to the ground, hopefully in collaboration with the TATAs - a greater good will be forged and these icons will be cherished for many more years to come.
1-04-2008 @ 10:18AM
Tom said...
As a two Land Rover family from the United States, we are very uneasy and anxious about whether dealerships and warranties will remain entirely intact, which seems essential to me! This is a great concern to many many fine customers I'm sure, so if any Ford or Tata executives are reading this, please make some official announcement about this just as soon as you know the answers.