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  3. As Ford Motor’s board of directors gathered to hold its quarterly meeting Thursday, speculation was growing that the world’s No.

As Ford Motor’s board of directors gathered to hold its quarterly meeting Thursday, speculation was growing that the world’s No.

admin2010-07-24  29
问题     As Ford Motor’s board of directors gathered to hold its quarterly meeting Thursday, speculation was growing that the world’s No. 2 automaker was prepared to acquire the automotive operations of Sweden’s Volvo. Merger (合并) speculation that has been widespread throughout the industry for months has focused on a possible Volvo-Ford linkup since a report last week that Volvo had hired a Wall Street investment bank to explore a possible sale.
    Ford’s board meeting was to be held in Dearborn, the Detroit suburb where Ford is headquartered. Chief spokesman Vaughn Koshkarian declined to comment on the agenda or the Volvo rumors. President Jac Nasser, speaking at an industry conference Tuesday night, also declined to say where Ford was negotiating with Volvo. But Nasser again said Ford was open to using its more than $ 20 billion cash reserve to expand the company’s global reach.
    Last year’s acquisition of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz led to a panic of talks among automakers looking to strengthen their position in an industry beset (困扰) with too much production capacity worldwide. The conventional wisdom is that smaller automakers will be ill-equipped to compete in the 21st century as the industry becomes dominated by several international automakers.
    Volvo, one of the world’s smaller automakers, produces less than 500,000 vehicles annually. Last year it sold 100,227 cars in the United States, one of its largest markets. Ford reportedly has been courting Nissan Motor which is in debt as well, and turned down an offer last month for a 20% share in the Japanese automaker.  Ford also lost in bidding late last year for financially troubled Kia Motors of Korea.
    Analysts (分析家) say Ford and Volvo are a better fit. "The Volvo thing is more practical than anything else," said analyst David Healy of Burnham Securities. "Ford, which is becoming good at cost-effectively developing a variety of very different cars with the same basic chassis (底盘) and major parts, could help Volvo expand its product line," Girsky said. "If you could bring a premium price," he said, "Ford has similarly expanded Jaguar’s vehicle line since it bought the British Luxury automaker in 1989."
    Girsky, however, does not expect Ford to overbid for Volvo. "They had every opportunity in the world to buy Kia Motors and they walked away from it because the price got too high," he said. "I don’t think Ford needs Volvo; it would be nice to have Volvo, but only at the right price."
What is the analyst’s suggestion to Ford about the possible merger?
选项 A、To give a higher bid in order to avoid such failures as before.
B、To acquire as many automakers as possible to expand production.
C、To develop newly acquired auto lines the way Ford did with Jaguar.
D、To develop lower price by cutting down the cost effectively.
答案C
解析 综合理解题。原文第五段中间分析家Girsky说：“如果福特能够在沃尔沃品牌下生产小型汽车或者用沃尔沃品牌生产运动型汽车的话，福特就能够获得价格优势了”。后面又说“1989年福特在收购了英国豪华汽车制造厂以后就是以类似的方式扩充了美洲虎汽车生产线的”。由此可知，这个建议就是让福特按照它开发美洲虎生产线的方法开发新并购的生产线。C含义与之相符，故为正确答案。
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