UPDATE: Additional information is at the bottom of this post. Ford says Fields has “retired” as opposed to initial reports of being “fired.”
Despite $9 billion in pre-tax profit, Wall Street hasn’t been a fan of Ford Motor Company and the Dearborn-based global automaker has changed horses, according to an early report by Forbes.
They say Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields is out. Additionally, their Vice President of Communications, Ray Day, has been sent packing.
Joann Muller, a long-time auto industry writer, broke the news late Sunday night. As of this writing it has not been confirmed by Ford.
Replacing Fields will be former Steelcase CEO Jim Hackett who has been running Ford’s smart mobility subsidiary.
Wall Street types are looking for ways to roll the dice, and they’re just not interested in steady profits. Under the reign of Fields, Ford stock has lost 40 percent of its value.
Evidence of this is the high market capitalization for upstart Tesla, with a market cap of $52.22 billion, while Ford is at $43.4 billion as of Friday’s close.
Tesla delivered a little more than 82,000 vehicles in 2016; Ford sold more than 2.5 million during the same period.
Recent reports have shared that Ford plans on cutting 10 percent of their workforce soon, or 20,000 jobs – even though the company had record profits in 2016. That’s obviously going to hit metro Detroit in some way.
New, 9:40 a.m.: Reuters is reporting that Fields “retired,” sharing part of a letter written by Bill Ford.
Part of Bill Ford email to @Ford employees this morning pic.twitter.com/t7LMJuwFRm
— David Shepardson (@davidshepardson) May 22, 2017