Ford (F) Warns Things Could Get Worse
Ford (F) will be putting over $13 billion into a fund which the UAW will use to pay health-care costs. That will take the liability for these expenses off Ford’s balance sheet and the costs off of its P&L. But,…
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Ford (F) will be putting over $13 billion into a fund which the UAW will use to pay health-care costs. That will take the liability for these expenses off Ford’s balance sheet and the costs off of its P&L.
But, Ford’s sales have been down for thirteen months in a row and it controls only 15% of the US vehicle market. Toyota (TM) has as much. GM (GM) is stronger, and sales for Honda (HMC) and Nissan are rising.
Ford is hinting that things could get worse. The head of its Americas operation, Mark Fields, is quoted in The New York Times as saying. “If you look at all the indicators out there, there is more risk than opportunity,” he said referring to 2008 US car sales.
The head of the UAW, Ron Gettelfinger, said “We have no doubts or reservations about Ford’s survival," because the new contract gives Ford such a large cost break. But, the cost break means little if Ford’s US market share slips toward 10%. Then Gettelfinger may have to eat his words.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.
