U.S Consortium Now In Lead for Volvo

Sweden's two brands are currently in the process of an attempted sale, with Spyker the latest bidder to join the fray for Saab. Recently, a report came out in Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri reporting that U.S investment consortium was preparing to put in a new bid for Volvo.

Prior to that, it was announced that Chinese automaker Geely was Ford's "preferred bidder" for Volvo. That usually means an advanced level of talks has been reached, but technically is meaningless.

Crown's big is seemingly is very competitive, as the situation supposedly has changed dramatically in Crown's favor.

The new offer is rumored to be on par with Geely's $1.8 billion bid. Crown's effort is led by ex-Ford executive Michael Dingman and Shamel Rushwin, who worked for Ford as well as Chrysler.

The fact that the two have industry experience should add more credibility to the bid, along with adjustments like efforts to have all the financing in place as well as Swedish investors on board.

Having Swedish investors involved with the bid makes it attractive to Ford and to those in Sweden. Reuters reports that Crown was encouraged by Ford to find the necessary funding.

Due to competitive reasons and intellectual property worries, if the Crown bid is competitive enough it seems that Ford might be leaning in that direction. This all speculation, but it would come as a drastic turnaround from Ford's previous position. We'll see how it works out.