Quote:
fredinflorida wrote:
Thanks. I would have never listened to those investment bankers that talked the Packard board into the deal with Studebaker. Truth be told they are the ones that came out of the deal smelling like a rose.
Rather like the tourist being shown around NYC. The guide points out a marina full of yachts belonging to stock brokers. "And where are their client's yachts?" asked the tourist.
The whole thing about Studebaker and Packard sharing a platform was delusional as the body would be too wide to fit through the paint booths and ovens in the South Bend body plant. The book about Harold Churchill talks about the closure of the Detroit assembly operations. They considered moving Packard production to South Bend, but it would have cost millions to rework the body plant. The Packardbaker was a relative bargain at $3.5M.
The entire idea of consolidating facilities was unrealistic because, by the time the merger was done, Packard had already committed to assembly at Conner and powertrain production in Utica.
But, Nance went into Packard with the ambition to do a big deal. Walter Grant was telling him Packard was "rapidly approaching bankruptcy". And Nash had already taken over the Hudson dealer network and customer base. The entire episode smells strongly of a determination to do a big deal, regardless of cost.
This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=187131