Seeking to fix business, Ford eyes collaborations

Friday, August 25, 2006 Bill Ford vows to keep investing in the automaker's car models. DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is examining whether alliances with other companies may be beneficial and is willing to consider all options, Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford said in an interview. Speaking to Business Week magazine, Bill Ford said no automaker has approached Ford yet, but the company is looking at collaborations that might make sense. "There are a lot of players out there gaming these things out, and we are, too. If we find someone with common interest, and it's good for all of us, we would look at that," Ford said in an interview posted Wednesday night on the magazine's Web site. The Wall Street Journal reported in its opinion section Wednesday that Bill Ford has approached Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan Motor Co. of Japan and Renault SA of France, about joining their global alliance, should a deal between General Motors Corp. and Nissan-Renault not work out. A Ford spokesman said the automaker wouldn't comment on such speculation. Ford, caught off guard in a market shift from trucks and sport utility vehicles to cars and crossover vehicles, lost $1.4 billion in the first half of this year, and it has cut production as inventories have swelled. The automaker plans to accelerate its "Way Forward" turnaround plan with announcements expected next month. Changes ahead Bill Ford also said in the Business Week interview that the company is looking at "radical changes" when it comes to its many brands, but he declined to give details. Analysts have speculated that Ford would sell its Jaguar and Land Rover brands, and that it should phase out the struggling Lincoln-Mercury nameplate. Ford told the magazine his family, which controls 40 percent of the voting shares of the company, has no emotional prejudice about its brands and only wants to fix the business. He also said that he is the right person for the job. "We need somebody, and I'm that somebody right now, who knows how to get our manufacturing footprint right, our employee count right, the product development right," Ford told the magazine. He also conceded that the company underinvested in cars in the 1990s. He said Ford launched good car products only to abandon them by failing to upgrade the models. "That's not going to happen any more," he said. Some analysts have suggested that with its stock price low, Ford should take the company private and restructure without being pressured by Wall Street. Bill Ford told The Associated Press last month that he was not contemplating such a move.