Ford says it will buy Rover name from BMW

Ford said Monday it will buy the Rover name from BMW AG, which sold the Land Rover sport utility vehicle business to Ford in 2000.

Ford was granted the right of first refusal for the Rover name when it bought the Land Rover luxury truck division.

BMW said last month that it agreed to sell the Rover brand for an undisclosed sum to an unidentified buyer. Ford had 90 days to exercise its right to buy it instead.

“It is in the interest of the Land Rover business to do this,” said Said Deep, a spokesman for Dearborn-based Ford. “We’re not ready to say what we plan to do with the Rover name.”

Deep declined to say what Ford will pay for the name.

Dow Jones Newswires reported in August that China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., or SAIC, intended to pay about 11 million British pounds ($20.7 million) for the Rover brand.

SAIC, the Chinese partner of General Motors Corp., founded SAIC Motor Manufacturing Co. at the beginning of the year, looking to develop cars under its own brand.

Rival Chinese automaker Nanjing Automobile Group bought Britain’s bankrupt MG Rover last year, but SAIC owns the technology for two Rover models, the 25 and the 75.

BMW held onto the rights to the Rover name, retaining them when it sold the company to Phoenix Venture Holdings for a token 10 pounds in 2000 after failing in a costly drive to turn the company around.

The German car maker gave MG Rover permission to use the name indefinitely for free under a licensing agreement and said it would consider letting another company use the name.

« Toyota Outlines Motorsports Activities for 2008 | BMW on track to reach pretax profit of 4 billion euros »

Comments

Bu Yazı Hakkında

Orlando Motors Sport üzerinde şu anda okumakta olduğunuz 'Ford says it will buy Rover name from BMW' isimli yazı 18 Mar 2008 tarihinde, saat: 14:35 'de admin tarafından gönderilmiş.

Benzer yazıları BMW kategorilerinden okuyabilirsiniz. Yazar ile irtibat kurmak için email gönderebilirsiniz. Yazıya yorum yapabilir ya da yapılan yorumları RSS 2.0 ile takibe alabilirsiniz.

Eklenen Son Yazılar

Bağlantılar