In 2006, with the Ford Motor Co. losing boatloads of money, little cash on hand and little of interest in its product pipeline, then-CEO Bill Ford, Jr. announced a major restructuring and brought in Boeing executive vice president Alan Mulally as its new president and CEO. One of Mulally's first moves was to mortgage virtually all of the company's assets, including its buildings and the logos on them, to raise $23.4 billion for much-need product development.
This was seen by nearly all observers as extremely risky, and many wondered whether the company would survive. But that move – borrowing billions when corporate credit was still available – would ultimately enable Ford, unlike its Detroit rivals, to avoid the embarrassment of bankruptcy and government loans when the economic tsunami struck two years later.
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