Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's third
largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales. Based in Dearborn, Michigan,
a suburb of Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated
on June 16, 1903. Ford's overseas business encompasses only one truly global
brand (Volvo of Sweden) other than the Ford brand itself, but it also owns a one-third
controlling interest in Mazda of Japan and a small holding in former subsidiary
Aston Martin of England. Its former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover
were sold to Tata Motors of India in March 2008, both companies having been
through many changes of ownership in the recent past. Lincoln and Mercury are
also Ford's aspirational brands in the USA, but not in the rest of the world. Ford
also sold the brand names of Daimler (excluding certain rights sold to Germany's
Daimler AG), Lanchester, and Rover to Tata Motors of India.
In
2007, Ford became the third-ranked automaker in US sales after General Motors
and Toyota, falling from the second-ranked automaker slot for the first time in
the previous 56 years. Ford was also the overall seventh-ranked American-based
company in the 2007 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2006 of $160.1
billion. In 2007, Ford revenues increased to $173.9 billion, while producing
6.553 million automobiles and employing about 245,000 employees at around 100
plants and facilities worldwide. Also in 2007, Ford received more initial quality
survey awards from J. D. Power and Associates than any other automaker, with
five vehicles ranking at the top of their categories, and fourteen vehicles ranked
in the top three. |
