Ford Sells Controls Over Mazda
Friday, December 5th, 2008Last Tuesday, automobile giant Ford announced that the company had sold 13% of their Mazda shares. Because of the said sale, the company is now richer by $540 million.
The sale of Ford Mazda stocks also meant an important landmark in the history of the automobile industry—Ford is letting Mazda out of its reigns after twelve years of full control. Ford took over the said Japanese brand since 1979 but the company wasn’t able to immediately establish full control.
With the diminished power that Ford has now over Mazda, CEO Hisazaku Imaki immediately passed Mazda’s reigns to purchasing head Takashi Yamanouchi. The new successor was reported to have been with Mazda for over forty years.
Mazda’s spokeswoman, Yukari Hara, said that the sell off entails that Mazda has once again been a Japanese company. A report said that the Ford shares were actually bought by Mazda’s Japanese stockholders.