by Marty Bernstein | May 29, 2009
More BMW Changes: Mini Appoints Dutch Shop for International Campaigns Last week while attending the third annual Mini United 50th anniversary bash in England, (more about this later) I met briefly with Herr Dr. Andeas-Christoph Hoffman, head of Mini’s marketing...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | May 28, 2009
It’s down to the proverbial wire for General Motors. Within the next several days, the automaker will either work out a last-minute settlement with bondholders or face a historic bankruptcy filing. To some, bankruptcy or not, there’s an equally...
by Ken Zino | May 28, 2009
With part carrot and a larger stick the United States Treasury Department has put a new deal on the table for the GM bondholders who refused to go along with a debt-for-equity swap that expired yesterday. Treasury now says accept the 10% stake in a reorganized GM and...
by Marty Bernstein | May 28, 2009
It’s a win one, lose one scenario for the Austin, Texas-based, Omnicom advertising agency. Just a week or so ago the shop won the BMW’s global creative account as reported here in TDB in a Friday column. Today they got the bad news. The media planning and...
by Joseph Szczesny | May 28, 2009
Members of the United Auto Workers Union are expected to vote to accept more concessions as part of revised contract with General Motors Corporation, including a ban on strikes until 2015. GM needs the concessions to survive and the union has no choice but to give...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | May 28, 2009
After a series of narrow, 11th hour escapes, the clock finally struck for long-troubled auto supplier Visteon Corp., this morning, the company announcing it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The one-time Ford partsmaking operation has been in trouble...
by Ken Zino | May 27, 2009
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met this evening at the Chancellery with German and U.S. government officials, representatives from General Motors Europe and Opel’s potential buyers. Bidders for the cash starved Opel brand include Fiat SpA, Canadian autoparts...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | May 27, 2009
There was a time, not all that many years ago, when General Motors’ Cadillac division seemed on a roll. It received initial raves for the edgy styling of its first CTS sedan and promised to follow with a wave of additional products sharing the so-called...
by Ken Zino | May 27, 2009
In a bankruptcy court filing Robert Nardelli, CEO of Chrysler LLC, says that the company recently offered for sale its entire Conner Avenue plant in Detroit, the facility that manufactures Dodge Vipers and engines, and the entire Viper business for only $10 million....
by Ken Zino | May 27, 2009
General Motors Corporation announced this morning the expiration of its exchange offers for $27.2 billion of its unsecured public notes that began on April 27, 2009. GM also said that no further tenders of notes will be accepted and any notes previously tendered...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | May 27, 2009
We’ve been hearing and seeing a bit of good economic news, lately. Despite a pre-holiday slump, Wall Street is showing strong form and consumer sentiment seems to be gaining ground, as well. Could the U.S. automotive market be far behind? If preliminary,...
by Ken Zino | May 26, 2009
Judge Arthur Gonzales sitting in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York will determine starting tomorrow morning if the sale of virtually all of the good assets of bankrupt Chrysler LLC to Fiat SpA will proceed. If he doesn’t approve,...
