Hangzhou, China-based Geely will buy Volvo for $1.8 billion, maintaining it as an independent company, according to the story. Volvo will retain its management and its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, but Geely will appoint a new board of directors. Ford and Geely have had a preliminary sale agreement in place since the end of 2009, according to the story. The deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter. Ford, China firm reach deal on Volvo sale - New Mexico Business Weekly:
I loved the original Volvo when I was a kid. Not the best to look at but practical with little frills. When Ford purchased Volvo, I swear that I'd never consider buying one. Now I will most likely not even think of it anymore.
Since a long time I'd been in love for the S60. The new S60 is very very nice, nothing to see with a Prius but technology is also there.
For a carmaker whose success is owed to its cheap compact vehicles, China's Geely Automobiles always seemed to operate with outsized ambitions. Its plucky chairman, Li Shufu, named some of his models "King Kong" and "Freedom Cruiser" and he pledged to seize American and European markets even though his own brand fails to crack the top 10 in domestic sales. Analysts have been scratching their heads over some of the automaker's decisions too. Geely bought a stake in Manganese Bronze, the makers of the iconic London taxis, with no obvious strategic goal. Geely also unveiled at a Shanghai auto fair last year the "GE," the company's answer to the Rolls-Royce famously featuring just one seat in the rear -- a massage chair, no less. So it was with a mixture of skepticism and surprise when Geely put in a bid to purchase Sweden's Volvo Cars from the Ford Motor Co. last year. Geely is a company, after all, whose leading foreign markets include Venezuela, Iran and Algeria. Even Li described the courtship for Volvo as being, "like a poor country boy chasing a top international celebrity." With Geely Automobiles in the driver's seat, what's ahead for Volvo? - latimes.com
