Geely has reached an agreement with Ford on the issue of Volvo’s intellectual property rights, according to a company spokesman.
The European-abased spokesman told Reuters that the major obstacle in Geely’s takeover of Volvo from Ford had now been overcome. Ford has declared Geely as its preferred bidder for the Swedish firm.
The spokesman said if the deal is completed, then Geely will have ownership of all technologies exclusively developed by Volvo.
Ford will be allowed access to any technologies which are crucial to the feature of its business, including safety and environmental features.
The agreement won’t apply the other way around, however, as Geely will not be allowed access or have any rights to any similar technology developed by Ford.
When Ford announced Geely as its preferred bidder for Volvo last month, Ford’s chief financial officer Lewis Booth highlighted the importance of reaching an agreement that was acceptable for both parties.
“Ford’s objective in our discussions with Geely is to secure an agreement that is in the best interests of all the parties,” he said.
“Any prospective sale would have to ensure that Volvo has the resources, including the capital investment, necessary to further strengthen the business and build its global franchise.
“Ford believes Geely has the potential to be a responsible future owner of Volvo and to take the business forward while preserving its core values and the independence of the Swedish brand. But there is much work that needs to be completed in the more substantive discussions that are agreed to take place. We have no specific timeline to conclude the discussion.”
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Re: Geely/Ford strike Volvo deal
I really hope Volvo can survive and flourish, they already have so much potential that with some careful marketing and gentle finessing of the product they could be an incredible brand. Just look what VW did with Audi over the past 20 years.
It's such a shame that Ford couldn't make the relationship work, Volvo designs and engines combined with Ford chassis tuning expertise could have been a wonderful combination.
Re: Geely/Ford strike Volvo deal
I think this is fantastic news it will really help volvo and should help them expand into new markets.
The only concern I have is of companies that use volvo parts such as aston martin will they lose there parts or will they still get them. Hopefully they get to keep them or else it would be a very expensive issue for aston martin to create all the parts that volvo did for them the exact same.
Re: Geely/Ford strike Volvo deal
What is interesting is whether a Chinese owner would stop people buying Volvos? I must admit I expected Jaguar and Land Rover sales to be badly affected by being owned by Tata, but it doesn't seem to have worked that way, so maybe it doesn't matter who owns the comapny as long as the product remains good...
This maybe the same fate for Saab - interesting times!