Ford CEO Alan Mulally: "Bankruptcy is Not an Option"
OK, that’s scary. While we fully expect Ford to be Detroit’s last man standing, those are the exact same words uttered by the man who’s been busy ramming GM into an iceberg– repeatedly. Well, at least FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally acknowledged the competition. “People aren’t going to buy cars from bankrupt companies when they have great choices.” Big Al’s “stay the course” cry is a bit more credible than Red Ink Rick’s; Ford tanked-up up on cash before the excrement and air movement device collided. But October’s sales results, and Ford’s next financial quarter, are going to be super-brutto. Here’s Automotive News‘ [sub] nutshell analysis: “During the first half of 2008, Ford lost $8.6 billion, and analysts expect further losses in the third and fourth quarters. In May, Ford abandoned its plan to restore profits in 2009. Since 1995, the company has shed U.S. market share annually. This year, its sales have plunged 18 percent.” So what the new new way Fordward? We “absolutely stay on this plan and restructure to get back to profitability as quickly as we can in this changing world,” Big Al soothed. “And continue to invest in the new products for near- and longer-term growth and value creation. We’re just going to do whatever it takes to do that.” Given that the Euro-Fords are still a year out and GM’s just delayed all its product plans, simply not dying is about as good as it gets for The Blue Oval Boyz. And it may well be enough.
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This is the same man who said they had no plans to dump Mazda. He is trying to appeal to the stock holders (those who are left).
menno, Wasn't Dorf the Tim Conway character with dwarfism? I think he played the role "chopped off at the knees." Appropriate name for any of the domestic makers at this juncture.
Ford got some pretty decent press on reliability in this month's CR, by the way.
ford will survive because: 1) the ford family still controls the company. if ford goes belly-up, so do they. 2) unlike the other ceo's, mulally has a successful history of turning around a giant manufacturer. 3) for all their problems, ford is moving in the right direction product-wise. 4) gasoline prices are returning to earth. fair disclosure: i am a small time ford stock holder and at $2/share i just bought more.