The Ford Motor Company (commonly referred to as simply Ford) is an American multinational automaker

headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on
June 16, 1903
Ford owns a 2.1% stake in Mazda of Japan, an 8% stake in Aston Martin of the United Kingdom, and a 49%
stake in Jiangling of China.
It also has a number of joint-ventures, one in China (Changan Ford Mazda)), one in Taiwan (Ford Lio Ho), one
in Thailand (AutoAlliance Thailand), one in Turkey (Ford Otosan), and one in Russia (Ford Sollers).
Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover, acquired in 1989 and 2000 respectively, were sold
to Tata Motors in March 2008. Ford owned the Swedish automaker Volvo from 1999 to 2010.[3]
Ford is the second-largest U.S.-based automaker (preceded byGeneral Motors) and the fifth-largest in the
world based on 2010 vehicle sales.[
In 2008, Ford produced 5.532 million automobiles[7]and employed about 213,000 employees at around 90
plants and facilities worldwide.
In 2010, Ford earned a net profit of $6.6 billion and reduced its debt from $33.6 billion to $14.5 billion lowering
interest payments by $1 billion following its 2009 net profit of $2.7 billion.[40][41] In the U.S., the F-Series was the
best-selling vehicle for 2010. Ford sold 528,349 F-Series trucks during the year, a 27.7% increase over 2009,
out of a total sales of 1.9 million vehicles, or every one out of four vehicles Ford sold.
Trucks sales accounts for a big slice of Ford's profits, according to USA Today.[42] Ford's realignment also
included the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary, Hertz Rent-a-Car to a private equitygroup for $15 billion in
cash and debt acquisition. The sale was completed on December 22, 2005. A 5050 joint venture
with Mahindra & Mahindra of India, called Mahindra Ford India, Limited (MIFL), ended with Ford buying out
Mahindra's remaining stake in the company in 2005.[43] Ford had previously upped its stake to 72% in 1998. [44]
Ford has manufacturing operations worldwide, including in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, the
United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and South Africa. Ford also has a cooperative
agreement with Russian automaker GAZ
Ford Motor Company sells a broad range of automobiles under the Ford marque worldwide, and an additional
range of luxury automobiles under the Lincoln marque in the United States.
Ford introduced the Edsel brand, but poor sales led to its discontinuation in 1960. In 1985, the Merkur brand
was introduced in the United States to market products produced by Ford of Europe; it was discontinued in
1989.
Ford acquired the British sports car maker Aston Martin in 1989, later selling it on March 12, 2007,[68] although
retaining an 8% stake.[69][70] Ford purchased Volvo Cars of Sweden in 1999,[71] selling it toZhejiang Geely Holding
Group in 2010. In November 2008, it reduced its 33.4% controlling interest in Mazda of Japan to a 13.4% noncontrolling interest.[72][73] On November 18, 2010, Ford reduced their stake further to just 3%, citing the reduction
of ownership would allow greater flexibility to pursue growth in emerging markets.