Entering the New Century, Ford has begun to decline.
In 1999, Jacques Nasser was appointed CEO of Ford. In the same year, Bill Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford and the fourth generation of the Ford family, became chairman of the board.
Then under Nasser's leadership, Ford quickly fell into a pit.
Nasser has invested tens of billions of dollars in luxury brands such as Volvo and Land Rover.
Other investments included auto repair businesses and Internet companies—a financially risky undertaking.
Some media criticized Nasser for straying from the business focus - car manufacturing and sales - and focusing too much on e-commerce, recycling waste and Ford's quick service operations.
By the fall of 2001, Ford's losses had reached $54 billion, and Nasser was forced to leave in disgrace.
Subsequently, Bill Ford was appointed as CEO.
Bill said: "There have been many difficult times in Ford's history, and we have overcome them time and time again. We will overcome this time as well."
After taking office, Bill put forward a detailed plan for Ford's revival.
However, the two most impressive aspects of his drastic reforms are: closing factories and laying off large numbers of employees.
Compared with his great-grandfather and uncle, Bill Ford's reform proposals are truly unimaginative.
In 2003, Ford celebrated its 100th anniversary. At the press conference of the China Yanjing Tour on October 17, Bill Ford said: "Ford not only celebrates history, but also creates history."
Ford is literally making history right now.
In the American market, Ford's market share fell to 15.6%, the company's lowest market share since 1920.
Its position as the world's second largest automaker was also lost to Toyota this year.
In addition, due to the impact of Asian automakers, Ford began to fall into a quagmire in other emerging markets such as Europe and Asia, making Ford's overall losses inevitable.
Especially last year, Ford created a 103-year record of losses, with global business losses reaching US$12.7 billion, an average loss of US$1,925 per vehicle sold.
"I heard that Bill Ford intends to resign as CEO of the company and is looking for a new CEO... It is likely that the sale of these brands, including Aston Martin, will need to wait until the new CEO takes office before making a decision..."
Statistics show that during Bill Ford's tenure, Ford laid off 73,000 employees and its stock market value fell by $18 billion.
In Baron's previous life, in September this year, Bill Ford brought Alan Mulally from Boeing to succeed him as CEO of Ford Motor Company and made adjustments to Ford.
Baron said to Pat Friedman:
"You can talk to them first. I think there will be a response soon."
In order to get out of the predicament, Ford sold some brands one after another in the original time and space, and finally only retained the Ford brand, hoping to turn losses into profits by focusing.
They sold the luxury car brand Aston Martin in 2007, and Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Group in 2008.
In fact, even if they don't ask now, Ford will start putting Aston Martin on the market in August this year...
At the beginning, they actually planned to sell the two brands, Jaguar and Aston Martin. Jaguar suffered a huge loss last year, while Aston Martin was at least profitable.
But later it was decided to sell Aston Martin first, because Jaguar could share the chassis with Ford's car series, which could reduce development costs.
Moreover, some of Jaguar's parts are taken from Ford's other brand, Land Rover, so the costs between them can be further reduced.
So even though Aston Martin was profitable in 2005 and Jaguar was losing money, Ford still decided to sell only Aston Martin because Aston Martin's car series was single and too high-end, which would not be conducive to Ford's global strategy in the long run.
However, this time, what Baron asked the CEO of Caesar Fund to discuss with Ford was not just the Aston Martin brand, but the package acquisition of Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover, three original British car brands.
In Baron's previous life, Ford sold Aston Martin, retaining about 15% of the shares and selling its 85% stake to a consortium led by Prodrive chairman David Richards - an American investment banker John Hinds and two Kuwaiti companies - for £475 million (equivalent to $848 million at the time).
Then, it sold the Jaguar and Land Rover car brands to India's Tata Group for US$2.3 billion.
Now, Barron hopes to buy these three British car brands directly back from Ford.
But even if Ford has already considered selling these brands, the negotiations between the two parties will not be completed in the short term.
Because just like in the original time and space, Ford sold Aston Martin for less than $1 billion in early 2007, which was nearly half of the price when they first announced their intention to sell Aston Martin in August 2006...
At that time, after the news that Ford was interested in selling Aston Martin, 30 companies around the world expressed their willingness to buy it, including the famous fashion group LVMH.
…
"Your Highness, Argos Retail Group will be listed on the London Stock Exchange on June 15th..."
After getting off the plane, Barron got the latest progress on the Argos Retail Group's IPO from his personal assistant Wang Wanting.
Argos Retail Group will sell 300 million new shares in its IPO, bringing its total share capital after listing to 3.3 billion shares.
The issue price of its shares was eventually set at 3 pounds per share - because it has the most "fashionable" e-commerce concept, more than 1,000 stores throughout Western Europe, and online shopping has covered some cities in Western Europe and Northern Europe, so the stock price expectations of Argos Retail Group are still very optimistic.
Moreover, in the European market, Argos.com is also a dominant player in the e-commerce field. Although there is news that Amazon will soon open a European site, Argos.com's first-mover advantage cannot be ignored.
"Also, Your Highness, Miss Fan Bingbing is already waiting for you at the shipyard."
"Okay, I understand."
Barron arrived in Germany this time. After the Devonshire landed, they took a convoy directly to a nearby town.
There, there is a century-old shipyard called Abeking & Rasmussen.
Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard was founded in 1907 by Georg Abeking and Henry Rasmussen. The shipyard has built a wide variety of boats, including commercial ships, military ships, sailboats, motor boats, etc., and has rich experience in the shipbuilding field.
Currently, Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard has orders for both commercial multi-purpose vessels, naval minehunters, and fully customized yachts.
Well, that includes the superyacht that Barron customized last year.