- Geely bought Volvo from Ford Motor Company.
- The purchase price was $1.8 billion.
- The Chinese automaker had been working to close the deal for more than a year.
GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Chinese automaker Geely has concluded an agreement to purchase the assets of Volvo Car from corporate parent Ford Motor for $1.8 billion.
The sale, which has been in negotiation for more than a year, punctuates Ford CEO Alan Mulally's bid to divest the U.S. automaker of its non-core brands. Earlier, Ford sold Aston Martin, Land Rover and Jaguar.
Geely, a manufacturer of mostly low-end vehicles in China, hopes to boost its global image with the acquisition of Volvo.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Geely intends to maintain Volvo's independence. But it also plans to build a new Volvo plant in China to help boost sales of the brand in that market.
Inside Line says: Geely continues to have great ambitions. Now it faces a great challenge — whether it can make Volvo profitable. — Hu Lei, Correspondent
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iskch says:
11:05 AM, 03/29/2010
Mercury is next! Just the brand name will nail some additional cash.
throwback says:
07:45 AM, 03/29/2010
"According to the Wall Street Journal, Geely intends to maintain Volvo's independence."
So they spent 1.8 billion dollars to not have a say in how the company is run? Comments like these are always amusing. When a company is bought by another, nothing remains independent. Ask anyone who has ever been in a acompany that was merged/been bought.