DETROIT – Could Ford Motor Co. end up as the last of the Detroit’s Big Three left standing as a solely U.S.-based company if General Motors Corp. forms an alliance with Japan?s Nissan Motor Co. and France?s Renault.
Friday’s stunning news of a potential GM-Nissan-Renault alliance raised the possibility that American independence could soon end for yet another proud Detroit auto company.
In 1998, the old Chrysler Corp. was swallowed into a so-called merger-of-equals with German automaker Daimler-Benz AG.
The force behind these dramatic and painful changes isn’t just Kirk Kerkorian, the billionaire casino mogul and auto investor who had a hand in driving the Chrysler deal and who, as GM’s largest individual shareholder, proposed the GM-Nissan-Renault partnership.
Auto industry insiders have predicted for years that growing pressures of the global economy could result in a profound consolidation of automakers.
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