Report: Killing Mercury will cost Ford nearly $500 million

Mercury
Ford, which announced a second quarter 2010 net income of $2.6 billion, estimates that it will spend nearly $500 million to shutdown its Mercury brand, CFO Lewis Booth said. Speaking to Automotive News Booth, said that Ford spend $247 million in the first half of 2010 to cover the cost of ongoing dealer reductions and other costs related to shutting down the Mercury brand.

He estimates the total cost to close the brand will be twice that amount. Booth said no dealer lawsuits have been filed against Ford for the shutdown of Mercury.

“The plan is in place and we’re having very fruitful discussions with our dealers,” Booth said.

Ford announced in June that it will kill Mercury and allocate the resources to focus all of its attention on Ford and Lincoln.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)