The largest Chevrolet dealer in the country filed for bankruptcy in September 2008. So far in 2008, 590 auto dealers have closed their doors, compared with 1,200 between 2001 and 2008. As described here, the auto manufacturers are quite pleased to see these dealers go. Why? The business model doesn’t work, especially in an economic…
Both UPS and FedEx are launching finance businesses to "boost customer demand by loaning money to small businessess." This financing would provide working capital, often secured by the underlying inventory. See story here.
As Forbes reports here, Ford and GM have been retooling their plants to shift away from SUVs to smaller cars. Underlying this business plan is a big assumption about the future of gas prices — they are explicitly betting on gas in the $4 to $4.25 range per gallon. So here are a few questions to consider:…
In a recent article about Twitter, the company admits that they don't have a plan for making money. The founder "wants the flocks of Twitterers to grow before trying out new business models." Hopefully he has enough cash to figure this out! This approach is very similar to dot-com era new media models and what…
Amazing. Even Siebel, who outlasted the big ERP players for years, has fallen — “Oracle to buy Siebel in $5.85 bln deal – Yahoo! News” Oracle to buy Siebel in $5.85 bln deal – Yahoo! News. The interesting question is what does this say about the market for enterprise software. It seems to me that…
