Re: What SINGLE factor MOST contributed to the demise of Packard?

Posted by ECAnthony On 2015/2/23 23:01:59

The 4-way merger proposed in the early 1950s was NO myth.

The May 17, 1952 issue of Business Week devoted a full-page to Nance joining Packard. The headline read "Nance's Idea: Merge Packard." The newsweekly reported that "Nance intends to make Packard the nucleus of a big new auto company - big enough to join the Big Three, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford - in a new Big Four. Nance's idea is to merge Packard with one or more of the other independent auto producers, most likely Nash-Kelvinator. It was on the understanding that he could tackle something like this that Nance took the Packard job."

"Putting Packard together would be one way to cure some of the problems," Business Week concluded, "as well as add to the number of dealer outlets and widen the line. Such a union might sound attractive, too, to an outfit like Nash. If not, there are other possibilities. The Detroit Athletic Club bar has cooked up many a merger that never came off. But no one should be surprised to learn any day that Hudson, Studebaker, Nash, Packard or Willys really was involved in a merger made up of some combination of those named."

So - what Business Week had guessed at was being talked about at the Detroit Athletic Club, as well as other area watering holes. And it had been "received favorably," Business Week reported, "by the powers-that-be, including such big shareholders as the Newberrys and the Macauleys."