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Opinion - USA - Joint Problems
Acquisition or joint venture?
USA -Forbes, by Jerry Flint -5 Oct 2005: -- That's the question in the struggling automobile industry. For a time the merger/acquisition route was in fashion, based on the idea that the auto business was mature, global and limited. That meant that a company must be everything to everybody in order to survive. The idea was bunk, and many mergers or acquisitions flopped:... So today's trend is to do joint ventures. General Motors and Ford combined to create a new six-speed automatic transmission that is beginning to appear in vehicles now. Chrysler and Volkswagen will work together on a minivan for VW. GM, DaimlerChrysler and BMW are jointly developing hybrid vehicles. There's a Chrysler/Hyundai JV engine plant about to start up in Michigan. VW and Porsche combined to turn out the Porsche Cayenne and the VW Touareg... Maybe it's just work avoidance, which I'm seeing all the time, all in the name of saving money... Here's an example: GM says it is shifting to global development of its cars and saving wads of money in developing new models and in buying parts... As for saving money, GM always says it is saving wads of money, but a funny thing keeps happening on the way to the savings bank: The losses in the North American automobile business grow and grow. So I have trouble believing all those tales of savings... Some say the world has changed, that the globe has gotten smaller. I'm sure it has. But maybe the visions of the big car companies have gotten smaller, too...
posted by Unknown @ 11:49 AM
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