#BrandSale

HUMMER fans have a new champion in Illinois Senator Roland Burris, who has agreed to investigate GM’s shutdown of the SUV brand according to Hummerguy.net. Attempts to keep the HUMMER brand alive are being fielded by Capital & Labor International Coalition, a recently-founded fund management firm created by Thane Ritchie, founder of Ritchie Capital Management, as well as failed HUMMER bidder Raser Technologies and The Electric Motor Corporation. According to Hummerguy,

CLIC is hoping for an “acquisition by coalition,” which would involve cooperation with private capital and U.A.W. resources. Union representatives from both HUMMER production facilities were on hand to hear the plan and are running the idea up the chain of command to the International U.A.W..

Reuters (which has been all over the Volvo-Geely deal) reports that Zhejiang Geely Holding has money “in the bank account,” to purchase Ford’s Volvo brand, citing Swedish press reports. And yet, despite having reportedly given Ford guarantees about the financing of Volvo’s business plan, and scheduled a formal deal signing for last month, a deal has yet to emerge. Last week, Geely’s chairman Li Shufu told Reuters from the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing that “we haven’t reached a final agreement so far,” but “everything is moving as planned.” Geely has also been talking up its “only one foreign brand” strategy and “new energy” car plans, while Volvo reps tell AM Online that a deal will be done by March 31 and that Chinese market access will save the brand [via The WSJ [sub]]. In fact, the only party involved that’s not issuing a steady stream of PR about the upcoming deal is Ford. Could the Blue Oval be getting cold heels?