More like 10 years ago. Your information is about 6 years out of date. They sold or suspended money losing brands like Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo. They refinanced the company back in 2005 by selling their factories and renting it back from the new owners. Nothing changed, just the title on the deed, and they were hundreds millions of dollars richer. At the congressional autos bailout hearing they were there to to support GM and Chrysler in acquiring TARP loans. Because if either of those companies failed it would send a shockwave in the supply chain.

> Even better would be to sell the company to its employees. That has worked very well for similar companies.

American Airlines is employee owned and that has worked out smashingly, not!

$190B assets / 170k employees = $1.11mm/employee. I doubt the average line worker has that kind of money on hand.

Empowering your workers with a share of their productivity and a voice in the business that elevates them beyond a flesh body moving its limbs is a slippery slope in an age of attempted wage slavery on a global scale.

/conspiracy

That's completely incorrect. Ford is in fact doing extraordinarily well.

1) Ford's stock is at the second highest general level it has ever been at during its publicly traded history (matched by the 2011 peak, and surpassed by the dotcom bubble days). Consistent with the QE bull market, but a good thing non-the-less.

2) As a business their financials and profit level is very healthy. They not only did not take a government bailout, but they're making a lot of money.

3) In 2003 Ford sold 6.7m vehicles. In 2012 they sold 5.7m vehicles. In 2003, Ford had net earnings of $495m (in 2002 they had a net loss of $980m). In 2012 they earned $5.66 billion. They've produced over $22b in operating income the last three years. This during a span of time in which US auto sales has been a disaster volume wise.

4) Their 2003 auto sales were $134b. Their 2012 auto sales were $126b. They trimmed off bad business segments, and boosted profitability by a factor of 11 = a very healthy, if mature business.

5) Their stockholder equity in 2003 was $12.5b, it's now $19.1b and heading north rapidly. They hold $36.6b in short term cash & securities. They completely paid off the collateralized $23b loan taken out in 2006. Their pension system is in much better shape today than it was ten years ago. They hold a mere $13 billion in debt in the automotive division, the bulk of their balance sheet debt is financing credit for customers.

Their business is drastically better off today than a decade ago. It's spitting tons of cash, enabling the pay down of past mistakes. Soon they'll also have a fully funded pension system, freeing up even more cash. It's better to be profitable and have a sustainable business than to lose a lot of money selling more cars.

"Ford Motor Co (F.N) could be in a position that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago - with a fully funded U.S. pension fund."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/31/us-autos-ford-pens...

2002 Total Vehicle sold - 6,973,000 [1]

- Ford/Lincoln/Mercury - 5,892,000

2002 Net loss $980M

Now it is only Ford and Lincoln brands

2012 Total Vehicle sold - 5,668,000 [2]

2012 Net Income $5,665M

Are you sure about your data?

[1] http://corporate.ford.com/doc/2002_full.pdf

[2] http://corporate.ford.com/doc/ar2012-2012%20Annual%20Report....

Well, at least of all the US automakers, they seem the best off. They forewent the government bailout, and in addition to their trucks which sell quite well domestically, they have quite popular models they sell in Europe.