Ford Looses An Additional $50 Million Bucks On Internet Venture- TACH Asks Ford:Why Not Just Make Good Cars And Trucks and Leave the Driving To Us?

The Detroit Press reported that Ford bailed out of yet another unsuccessful e-commerce venture, Ford Motor Co. plans to sell its stake in Wayne, Pa.-based Internet Capital Group Inc. They went on to report that Ford is losing nearly all of the $50 million it invested in the once red-hot e-commerce holding company in December 1999. In a regulatory filing last week, Ford said it planned to sell 462,962 shares of Internet Capital Group stock.

Under Jacques Nassers leadership Ford originally paid $108 a share. The stock closed at $1.22 a share Monday. At that price, Ford's shares are now worth $564,814. Internet Capital invested in a variety of dot-com companies. Ford acquired its stock in an attempt to share in the dot-com boom that created huge fortunes before the investment bubble burst last year. The divestiture will allow the struggling automaker to write off the losses.

Ford spokesman Todd Nissen said the decision to sell its Internet Capital holdings was part of Ford's ongoing portfolio management strategy.

Ford, like many other (Editors Comments-Stupid)established companies, invested heavily in e-commerce ventures and Web-based technology in recent years in hopes of reaping a windfall. The results, however, have been dismal. In October, Ford took a $200-million charge to write off assets in money-losing Internet ventures.

Publishers Note: In spite of this expensive lesson Ford and other manufacturers continue to invest heavily in producing their own content for both the internet and TV...the lessons given have apparantly not been learned...why not build and sell good cars and trucks and leave the publishing of content to professionals.

For the past 5 years we have been trying to get Ford to recognize the power of TACH advertising, but to no avail. The management of