Re: Romney's selective memory

Posted by 58L8134 On 2015/8/29 9:09:09

Hi Steve203

Good point, all the principals were departed, literally and under less-than-stellar circumstances, who'd brought about this situation. The Briggs heirs weren't party to it and without detailed contracts of who owned what, they weren't obligated to sort it out. The ultimate irony is Packard ended up leasing not only the bodymaking facilities but also some of their own stamping presses and tools, long since intermixed with those of Briggs. All of it was held in control of a competitor!

Of the two merger prospects, Hudson contained more assets useful to Packard than did Studebaker and not nearly as much troublesome baggage. Nance and his advisors apparently didn't have the analytical ability to see passed Hudson's drawbacks to those beneficial assets. JJN would have had to aggressively pursue merger with Hudson the moment he took the helm. Within a year, Briggs would be on the block, the timeframe to salvage their dies and tooling from Connor, installing them in the Hudson body plant for 1954-55 production was extremely tight. Hudson was an escape route for at least one major problem, if only they'd availed themselves of it.

Thankfully, Nance knew enough to leave Kaiser alone! Talk about the third rail of independent automakers!

Thanks Randerson, corrected that incorrect use.....and the dictionary is immediately at hand too! Would it be correct to write that Alvan Macauley and Walter Briggs were principals who compromised their business principles to make the bodymaking deal?

Steve