Chapter 1724 Auto Union

Although Chen Ze had extraordinary trust in Li Mu, he really couldn't believe that Li Mu was going to buy the three car brands in Ford's hands in one go.

Seeing his stunned look, Li Mu smiled and said, "Old Chen, I'm not kidding you, we flew all the way here, not to visit the Ford factory."

Chen Ze settled down and asked, "How much does it cost to acquire these three brands, astronomical figure!"

Li Mu smiled and said, "However, the quotation is only a few billion dollars."

billions of dollars...

Chen Ze almost vomited blood after hearing this.

Only Li Mu can talk about billions of dollars so easily.

However, if you think about it carefully, these three brands together are only a few billion dollars, which is really not high.

He recalled some data in his memory and said, "It seems that Ford has spent at least six or seven billion dollars for Volvo, right? In addition to Jaguar Land Rover, the purchase price of these three brands is at least ten billion dollars. Why? Will it be so cheap?"

Li Mu smiled and said, "Because of losing money!"

As he said that, Li Mu said like a family treasure: "Look, Volvo was in the hands of Ford, and it was a huge loss; when Jaguar and Land Rover were integrated by them, they also failed to escape the fate of huge losses. They bought three brands for more than ten billion dollars. It has lost billions of dollars over the years, and now it only sells a few billion dollars in total, and Ford has lost at least nearly 10 billion."

The loss of a large industrial group is a blunt knife to cut the meat. Although it will not kill you with one stroke, every time you cut it, you will cut off a large piece.

For example, when the domestic steel and coal market is not good, private related enterprises can immediately turn from profit to loss, and then they are deeply trapped by their own enterprises. It is a negative number, but the key is that this net asset is like a limit-down stock, if you want to sell it, you can't sell it.

Under such circumstances, business owners can only carry losses, hoping that one day they can wait for the market to warm up. Many times, they just wait for the richest man in a place to become a listed old man, whose worth is tens of billions to negative. Just three or two years.

Once the industry becomes trapped, it is indeed terrifying. It is like a cement block that falls on the body, pulling people into the abyss, and it is impossible to get rid of it.

The hundred-year-old Ford has become more and more bad. The main reason is that the stalls are too large and the management is poor, and they are eventually trapped by their own assets.

When Chen Ze heard this, he was taken aback and hurriedly said, "Then you are buying his three brands at this time, aren't you a scapegoat for Ford? How can you buy back three loss-making companies for billions of dollars? Don't you have to give them blood all the time?"

Li Mu said with a smile, "In Ford's hands, it's a life-threatening ghost. In my hands, it's probably five ghosts who make money. Ford doesn't have the ability to make profits from these three brands, which doesn't mean I can't do it."

Chen Ze had a big head, rubbed his temples, and said, "Lao Li, you have never owned a car before. This is a big industry with tens of thousands of people. Which car brand is not global procurement and global sales? The supply chain alone is enough. Enough to drink a pot, not to mention sales.”

Li Mu patted his shoulder and said with a smile, "Don't worry, I have thought about what I should think about, and I have thought about what I shouldn't think about. I have great confidence in turning these three brands into profits. , even if it doesn’t work, so what, it’s only billions of dollars, if I lose the principal, I will disband the factory and donate all the equipment and technology patents to the country, which is also a good thing, what are you afraid of?”

Chen Ze nodded and said with a smile: "Okay, since you said so, then I don't support you anymore, what kind of brother."

After speaking, he immediately said again: "I know a little bit about cars. As long as you need it, I will listen to you in the future."

Chen Ze himself is a car-obsessed person, and his affection for the car and the auto industry is much deeper than that of Li Mu. Originally, he was just worried that Li Mu would buy three hot potatoes and finally beat the chickens, but deep down, he had no idea that Li Mu would win this. The three brands are still looking forward to it, and now Li Mu has shown strong self-confidence,

There was no worry in his heart, and the rest was full of enthusiasm.

Three internationally renowned car brands are about to be acquired by Huaxia Enterprises and become 100% Huaxia Enterprises. Thinking about this kind of thing is enough to make people excited.

If these three brands can be done well, it will be the light of the nation.

...

Chen Ze excitedly followed Li Mu to the hotel, where Elon Musk's team members had been waiting for a long time.

In order to get these three brands, Elon Musk brought over all of his high-level executives in Tesla. In addition, through the introduction of friends, he hired several authoritative figures in the auto industry with high salaries to ensure this time. The acquisition finally landed.

For Elon Musk, he is also looking forward to this acquisition, because as Li Mu said, if these three brands are available, then all the models, platforms and technologies of these three brands will be open to Tesla. pull.

That is to say, in the future, Tesla only needs to carry out new energy on the models of these three brands, and there is no need to redesign the chassis and build the platform, because the future Tesla can even directly use these three brands. The brand is responsible for the OEM.

Elon Musk introduced the team members to Li Mu at the banquet. After lunch, everyone immediately came to the 400-square-meter presidential suite that Li Mu had reserved.

In the presidential suite, Elon Musk made a general work report to Li Mu.

At present, everything is going smoothly. Except for the slightly higher requirements for money, Ford is very cooperative in everything else, and its sincerity is still very sufficient.

However, there are also problems. For example, Volvo's production line is still in Sweden. After the brand changed hands, Makino Technology will send people to Sweden to solve the follow-up company changes, employee transfer and other issues. This is not too much trouble for Makino Technology. The trouble is that Land Rover still has a production line in the US.

Jaguar Land Rover's main production line is in the UK, but there is also a production line in the United States. According to the requirements of the auto industry union, if Ford sells this production line, the buyer must ensure that this production line will continue to run for at least five years, and will not voluntarily lay off employees or Discontinued.

Elon Musk said: "The auto unions in the United States are very influential. Even GM and Ford can't help them. If we can't meet the demands of the unions, the auto unions will prohibit Ford from selling this production line."

Li Mu nodded lightly.

He has already learned the brilliance of American labor unions.

In fact, it is better to say that it is awesome, and sometimes it is more appropriate to say that it is a stupid bird.

The ability of the American Automobile Workers' Union is unparalleled, not only can it form an absolute suppression of car companies, but also can affect the country's overall policy in the field of automobiles.

In order to resist the impact of Japanese car companies, the U.S. labor union asked the government to put pressure on Japanese car companies, so the U.S. government asked Japan to sign a "voluntary binding agreement" and can only export 1.68 million vehicles to the U.S. market each year.

In the end, the Japanese had to go to the United States to build factories one after another. Although this benefited the American Auto Union and solved a large number of jobs, for the three major American car companies, they were simply their mother’s pig teammates.

The American car itself is not competitive. Fortunately, it can rely on the advantages of the local market to make a living in the United States. As a result, the guild forced Japanese car companies to come to the United States to build factories. For Ford, GM and Chrysler, this is simply Is to lead the wolf into the room.

The cost of labor in the United States is very high, which in itself makes the three major car companies miserable. However, the Japanese understand cost control better than they do, so the advantages are very obvious, and the life of the American car companies is even worse.

And the auto unions are still squeezing American auto companies everywhere. Ford once tried to close one of their assembly plants in the United States, but the union demanded that even if the assembly plant was closed, the salaries should be paid in full to the more than 3,000 workers in the assembly plant, and Social and medical insurance.

The auto union, which has made great progress, even put forward an extremely nonsense plan, requiring American auto companies to provide 95% of wages to the unemployed workers of the auto union, which is downright shameless.

What is even more frightening is that in order to safeguard their own interests, the Auto Union has tried every means to obstruct auto companies from optimizing their industrial structure.

For example, they tried every means to prevent American car companies from building factories overseas;

For another example, they tried every means to resist the automation reform of the production line.

It is precisely because of this arrogant operation that Detroit has gradually become a dead city, along with Detroit, and the golden years of the three major American car companies.

However, Japanese car companies are very thieves. They came to the United States to build factories, but refused to sign any agreement with the auto unions, so that the auto unions can only pile up on American car companies like blood-sucking worms, but they are powerless to Japanese car companies.

This further weakens the competitiveness of American cars in the United States and Japanese cars, so the North American family car sales rankings are randomly pulled out. Among the top five car companies in sales, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan occupy three perennially. seats.

Li Mu also doesn't want to talk to the American Auto Union. If he opened a factory in the United States, even if the Auto Union came to the door, he would not sign any agreement with the other party, but the current problem is that Ford itself is within the sphere of influence of the American Auto Union. Auto unions can be ignored, but not Ford.

Immediately, Li Mu said to Elon Musk: "The problem of the union will be difficult to solve for a while. The most important thing at the moment is to complete the acquisition as soon as possible, so as long as the request of the auto union is not too much, we will temporarily agree and wait for the acquisition. After you're done, break up with them slowly."

Elon Musk nodded and said, "I will communicate with Ford specifically about this."

Li Mu smiled slightly and said, "Ford must be troubled by the guild himself, right?"

Elon Musk shrugged and said: "Everyone said that the purpose of the American Automobile Association is to destroy the domestic auto industry in the United States. If it weren't for them, Japanese car companies would not be so successful in North America."

After all, Elon Musk reminded: "But in the afternoon you can use this question to press the price with Ford and let them make some concessions."