I recently read in my local newspaper that FIAT plans to break away from its current owner, (ford ) and buy Maserati for itself. I dont like this for Maserati's future, but it should do some good for FIAT's cars. It mentioned that they want to up technology in their cars. What better way that from Ferrari's little bro?

Marco

 

FIAT had a relationship with GM, which GM recently severed at great cost, though it's probably the best thing in the long run given the condition of FIAT. Ferrari's parent company is FIAT and Ferrari in turn owns Maserati and has done great things with it the last few years.

Yes, it's confusing.

Mark

 

Yeah, the whole thing struck me as odd. I though FIAT already owned them. Confusing paperwork to say the least.

 

i thought that Fiat initially owned Ferrari, but when they went into the hole and GM bought them that Ferrari became semi-independent, then they owned Maserati then now this new business. all i have to say is

 

as was said earlier, GM owned some of FIAT, then got out of it, FIAT owns Ferrari, Ferrari owns Maserati. back in the day Ford almost bought Ferrari, but Enzo Ferrari got cold feet and backed out, which is the reason Ford built the GT40. FIAT also owns Alfa Romeo and Lancia i believe. Ferrari is semi-independent, but they still have their bosses at FIAT.

 

I drove a Fiat for 12 years! Yeah...the same one the whole time! Thanks to a brilliant mechanic (my hubby), it lived waaaaay beyond it's normal life-span!

I ended up selling it at a....drumroll, please....GARAGE SALE!

The intricacies of the Maserati sale befuddle me!


Clover

 

FIAT is combining Alfa Romeo and Maserati - they will still exist as independents, but will share architecture and technology. They will still own Ferrari, but Maserati is moving over with the changes in GM's deal.

 

The deal is that GM owned a large chunk of FIAT (but specifically excluding Ferrari) but paid a ridicious amount of money just a couple of weeks ago to get out of their committment to buy the right. FIAT has owned Ferrari forever and Ferrari in turn has owned Maserati so they've actually owned them all along. It's likely more of a balance sheet type of thing but it's not really an ownership or management change. Ford has never owned FIAT.

 

Nope, FIAT SpA owns a majority of Ferrari (which owned Maserati) and FIAT Auto (which owns FIAT, Alfa Romeo and Lancia). GM bought 20% of FIAT Auto in 2000 and FIAT Auto got a "put" option to sell FIAT Auto to GM between 2004 and 2009. At no time did GM own any of FIAT SpA or Ferrari-Maserati. FIAT Auto did some restructuring in 2003 that reduced GM's ownership to 10% and moved the date for the put option to become live to 2005. Beginning in December 2004, GM realized that FIAT intended to go thru with the put and force them to buy FIAT Auto which was hemoraging cash at about a billion dollars a year. GM's European operations aren't in much better shape. GM and FIAT Auto went thru a mediation period which ended in FIAT Auto saying the put was valid and we intend to exercise it in 2005 and GM saying that the restructuring invalidated the put. In the end GM blinked and paid FIAT Auto $2 billion to go away. Now the CEO of FIAT is firing the FIAT Auto execs that have only been there 15 months and is having FIAT Auto purchase Maserati from Ferrari (FIAT SpA). IMHO this is a prelude to a Ferrari IPO as in 2003, FIAT SpA sold some of Ferrari to investment banks and I think they are itching to turn a profit on their investment in Ferrari. The sale of Maserati enables Ferrari to jetison its loss-making little sister. This article is a nice summary of the FIAT soap opera:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...c&refer=europe

Interesting that the FIAT CEO Marchionne has moved Frank Stephenson (familiar name - MINI connection) from Ferrari to FIAT Centro Stile.

Ciao,

 

Quite right John - I was using the abridged version. But yours is absolutely correct!

 

wow. thats more confusing than i ever imagined. But thanks for the awesome info!