PremiumIn 2008, business tycoon Ratan Tata helmed Tata Motors completed a deal to acquire luxury car brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, from American giant Fiord. This was one of the biggest deal by the Indian automaker.
However, back in the day, when Tata Motors flagship car Tata Indica, however failed to take off due to low sales and they decided to sell off its car business to Ford. Ratan Tata and his team flew to the United States to meet Bill Ford, who was then the chairman of Ford. Tata was humiliated by Ford in that meeting.
"You do not know anything, why did you start the passenger car division at all. We are doing you a big fair by buying your car division," said Bill Ford.
After that meeting, Ratan Tata decided not to sell of the car business, Tata Motors and turned things around for the company.
Businessman Harsh Goenka, Chairman of RPG Enterprises, on Monday, took to his social media account to share a video of the story.
"Ratan Tataβs response when he was humiliated by Ford πππ," he tweeted while sharing the video.
The video has garnered over 2,200 likes and 516 retweets.
In 2008, while Ford was struggling to make profit from their sales and Ratan Tata offered to buy Jaguar and Land Rover series car from Ford, which were its worst selling car at that time.
Bill Ford came with his team to India to strike a deal. In the meeting Bill Ford told Ratan Tata, " You are doing us a big favour by buying JLR, thank you."
In June 2008, he completed the deal to acquire Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford in an all-cash deal of $2.3 billion.