Although Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it was not in talks with BMW AG or "any
other carmaker" about a potential sale of its Volvo unit, that didn't stop
Reuters
from following the frenzy of stories with a follow-up quoting several
analysts, who doubt the Dearborn, Mich., company's sincerity. A Merrill Lynch
& Co. analyst went so far as to put a price tag on Volvo for Reuters: $8
billion. The Reuters report prompted auto enthusiast Web site
AutoBlog
to offer an interesting possibility: a Chrysler-Volvo merger. Here's a taste
of what AutoBlog wrote:
We've already stated our thoughts on BMW buying Volvo, but with the
sale of Chrysler to a private equity group, could Volvo be the next Cerberus
target? A Chrysler/Volvo team could be the halo marque the automaker needs, and
Chrysler could also benefit from Volvo's safety-first image.
However, a Chrysler-Volvo merger seems unlikely. Sure, PE firms love a good
rollup, but Chrysler isn't a platform for such an effort because the company
needs too much turnaround work. —Matthew Wurtzel
See
story from The Detroit News
See
story from Reuters via Yahoo!
See
post from AutoBlog
See
earlier post from Dealscape
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