Reports: Firestone’s Ono To Be Out

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Bridgestone/Firestone’s CEO Masatoshi Ono is to be ousted from the top job in a management reshuffle expected later this month, company sources have told several media outlets.

The sources reportedly also said that a replacement for Ono has not yet been selected.

A spokesman for Firestone’s Japanese parent, Bridgestone Corp., confirmed to the Reuters news service that a top management reshuffle was planned for Firestone but that details had not yet been decided.

Bridgestone president Yoichiro Kaizaki was quoted as telling the Nikkei Business magazine that he will ask for Ono’s resignation. “We will let Mr. Ono go,” he was quoted as saying in an article published Monday.

According to Reuters, the Bridgestone spokesman interviewed later said Kaizaki did not tell the magazine that Ono would be sacked. But he added, “Kaizaki told the magazine that he wanted to talk with a new person (new chief executive) at Firestone.”

Kaizaki also speculated that he too may be compelled to resign, according to Reuters.

“I had originally planned to step down next March (when his eight-year term as president ends) and I still hope to do so. But there are many cases where a scandal led management to resign, so it’s unclear what will happen. It depends on future developments.”

Kaizaki also warned in the interview, according to Reuters, that the scandal could cause Firestone’s annual sales to drop by $1.3 billion, including $350 million in lost sales to Ford Motor Co. The first figure represents 20 percent of Firestone’s overall tire sales.

Bridgestone is one of the world’s largest tiremakers along with Michelin of France. Each held a 19.4 percent global market share by volume in 1999.

Similar reports about the resignation of the Firestone CEO were published in Japanese newspapers late last week. Reportedly the company has not yet decided whether Bridgestone would replace Ono with one of its own executives from Tokyo or one of Firestone’s five American board of directors members.

U.S. authorities have expanded their probe of Firestone tires to include the firm’s Steeltex line of light truck tires.

Also, Ford and Firestone executives are to meet with crash victims in Venezuela to offer them government-sanctioned financial settlements. Officials there maintain, however, that the money spent will not stop criminal charges if they are deemed appropriate.

Meanwhile, as part of a Texas lawsuit, Firestone will release testing data about its Firestone ATX tires that had been kept secret, although some of the information will be shielded under a protective court order.

At a hearing before a district judge in Houston, Firestone agreed to release by next Monday information about test results, quality assurance, adjustment data and correspondence between it and Ford about tire specifications, design, manufacture and testing.

The two sides in the lawsuit agreed to make some information public, including test data, quality control documents and correspondence between Ford and Firestone about the ATX. Firestone will provide other information under seal, including test protocols and production records.

The agreement apparently will shed new light on the relationship between Ford and Firestone.

The two companies have been criticized by safety advocates for using protective court orders to keep information in lawsuits away from the motoring public.

The companies have said the information under seal mainly involves trade secrets, and that lawyers for the plaintiffs have always had the option of arguing that the information should be released in the interest of public safety.

Ford has ordered its own recall of the same suspect Firestone tires in 16 other countries after receiving reports of problems. The overseas recalls began more than a year before the recall in the U.S.--prompting considerable criticism of Ford’s executives.