Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally told the high-tech industry that his company is in the game to stay during a keynote address Thursday to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Ford has been a fixture at the annual gathering of technology leaders since it debuted Sync there two years ago. The in-car infotainment system developed through a partnership with Microsoft Corp. has attracted new customers to Ford’s showrooms.
Amidst a massive selloff on the Dow Jones this afternoon, a couple of things have been overlooked. GM in the first day into it’s second century of operation, closed below $10 per share at $9.98 down almost 8% from yesterday.
GM CEO Wagoner, blames lack of consumer confidence, the big Wall Street selloff and several other factors for the price slide.
Without a doubt, the auto sector is in turmoil, when all parties involved, Tier 1 suppliers, manufacturers and dealer groups posted sharp declines today.
Lear Corp. posted an 8% decline, along with AutoNation, which also posted an 8% decline. Bill Gates who became a stockholder of Auto Nation earlier this year must be quite displeased. Or maybe, he is just gearing up to sell Microsoft operating systems for cars through Auto Nation as he quietly manuevers himself into a larger shareholder position.
It has been reported in a recent mandatory filing of AutoNation, the dealer group with 321 dealerships across 15 states that Bill Gates ex-CEO of Microsoft Corp. has bought a significant amount of shares belonging to the group. At the latest market valuation, the 9.9 million shares under the control of Gates is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $90 million and change.
The dealer holding group has sold 328,963 vehicles this past year.
Bill Gates as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has purchased 2.6% of the company. Cascade Investments LLC, also controlled by Gates owns 2.9% of the company.
The largest shareholder in the firm AutoNation is hedge fund manager Edward Lampert. He owns 39.9% of AutoNation. Lampert became famous when he bought out Kmart to turn around and sell it to Sears Holdings Co.
Computer entrepreneur Michael Dell also announced in May, he is looking to form a dealership holding company with Jeffrey Ranchor, the president of Sonic Automotive.
