Ford sells Hertz division

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F - news) will sell its car-rental firm Hertz to a group of corporate-buyout firms, including Clayton Dubilier & Rice, Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, for $5.5 billion to $6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said Hertz's fate could be determined as soon as Friday.

It said the private-equity firms would also assume Hertz's debt, which totals more than $10 billion, according to recent regulatory filings, of which around half is long-term debt.

The buyout firms will spend as little as $3 billion of their own funds and borrow as much as $12 billion to finance the purchase and the assumption of debt, the Journal said.

A winning bid by the Clayton Dubilier group would hand a rare defeat to a competing group of private-equity firms -- including Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee & Partners -- people familiar with the matter told the paper. Both Ford and Hertz declined to comment.

The two groups have been pitted in an intense auction for Hertz. At the last moment, despite Hurricane Katrina potentially harming prospects for the car-rental business, the price tag actually rose, participants in the process told the Journal.

The newspaper said Ford had considered taking the company public, and it is possible Ford's board could return to that course at the last moment. The cash-strapped car maker wants to reduce the debt on its balance sheet, and it would no longer have to consolidate the debt of the fleet operations after a public listing.

Ford also faces a renewed need for cash, as sales of profitable sport-utility vehicles have slowed.

But selling Hertz outright would bring Ford more money more quickly than a public offering. And the company is ideally suited for private-equity investors, which prefer companies with steady, strong cash flows, upon which they can then pile on significant debt, the Journal said.
 
:eek: Isn't that (Hertz) where you work Darin? If so, I hope it turns out to be good for you.
 
Yes, both Rocco and I work for Hertz. In the 18 years I've worked here, we've been bought and sold about 6 times, so I figure this time will be no different. Each new buyer has their own set of rules and 'do's and don'ts'. :)
 
The only issue I see for me is I am in IT and lately when a company gets sold those acquiring it seem to think they need to outsource IT as soon as possible. Don't ask me why this happens. All the evidence points to the fact that with the exception of standardized functions - accounting and such - internal IT is always cheaper than outsourcing.



But what do I know? When you pay some 'flavor-of-the-week', hot-shot consulting firm millions of dollars to tell you what to do, you better by-God do it!



:wacko:

 
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Darin and Rocco,

Wishing you both the best on being with your currents jobs after the Hertz deal is done. May you never run down your sneakers to its inner sole looking for a new job. God bless you and yours.
 
I used to work for a software company where they outsourced 250 developers to India. Maintenance of code was easy for them. However, building a new application they failed miserably. The app never scaled past 250 concurrent users and it took NASA to install it. This was Enterprise software....



My web hosting company has outsourced all their tech support to India. Now nothing against India and their citizens but it's getting really old when they ask where you live, Seattle, and say "Oh the CNN Tower is really kewl have you been up there? Geesh it's the Space Needle People!!!
 
Good luck with the change Darin and Rocco- I have been a loyal #1 Club Gold member since the time Alamo rented me a dirty Suzuki on my first trip to New Orleans- its a great feeling to find your name on the Hertz board, hop into a nice CLEAN Ford w/navi. and hit the road. Now- do you have a good CDP or discount # for my one week, one way rental from Toronto to Montreal ? I bailed out of the AMA this year when the leadership made some disparaging remarks about my specialty and our compensation relative to others.:cool:
 
Gavin: they should sink those Tauruses into the levees to fill those breaches LOL



If I get laid off, guess I can always apply at ExxonMobil. $10 billion in profit could mean a few jobs :)
 
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My guess is that Ford will include some sort of requirement that the new owners continue to buy cars from them in the deal.

:D



And Lasik, employee discounts aren't all that great. :)





 
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Rocco, if the worst case comes along, check out this company that provides services to Tinker. I have dealt with many contractors in my career, and they are by far the best I have ever dealt with.
 
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