Tata acquires Jaguar and Land Rover
Overdue.
India’s Tata Motors is buying British luxury icons Jaguar and Land Rover from ailing US carmaker Ford for 2.3 billion dollars as it vaulted into the premium global car market.
The cash purchase, part of plans by India’s top vehicle maker to expand its reach beyond Asia, capped months of talks with Ford Motor Co., which is selling the prestige brands to focus on turning around its North American operations after losing 15.3 billion dollars over the past two years…
Ford is getting less than half what it paid for the two marques after buying Jaguar in 1989 for 2.5 billion dollars and Land Rover in 2000 for 2.7 billion dollars.
The new purchase by the group, led by racing car enthusiast Ratan Tata, is another sign of corporate India spreading its global wings and comes a year after the conglomerate bought British steel giant Corus Group for 13.7 billion dollars, the biggest-ever acquisition by an Indian company.
Westerners should begin catching up on economics in the rest of the world. Who knows? Someone from DuBai may just buy the NY Yankees or McDonalds, next year.
Posted: Thu - March 27, 2008 at 09:24 AM