Henry Ford was born in Dearborn, Michigan in 1863. Henry Ford married Clara Bryant in 1888. Clara was very supportive of her husband and his dreams. Henry and Clara had one son together named Edsel (Innovator). As a young boy, he worked hard on his family’s farm. As he grew older, he realized that working on the farm was not for him. In 1893 he started to work at Edison Illuminating Company as a chief engineer. With a well-paying job, Ford had extra money to spend. He put his extra money towards experimenting on gasoline engines. After his hard work he created a self-propelled vehicle he called the Ford Quadricycle (Innovator). Ford ultimately quit from Edison, and created his own company called Detroit Automobile Company. …show more content…
All three, for the most part, have come back from those hardships. In 2013, in regards to US Sales, Ford sold 2.5 million units, GM sold 2.8 million units, and Chrysler sold 1.8 million units. Ford posted $8.6 Billion in pre-tax profits, with a full year net income of $7.2 Billion (Ford). GM posted $2.3 Billion in net income in 2013 (GM), while Chrysler posted $2.8 Billion in net income in 2013 (Chrysler). With that being said Ford also reported high manufacturing costs on lower volume opposed to the previous year of 2012. In regards to cash, Ford at the end of 2013 reported, cash or cash equivalents at $14.47 Billion, while GM reported at $21.27 Billion and Chrysler at $13.3 Billion, all up from 2012 figures. In breaking down the numbers, in regards to current ratio, Ford’s ratio is 2.04, while GM’s was 1.31, and Chrysler’s at 1.16. Ford having the highest current ratio of the “Big Three”, lets us know that they are the most capable of paying their obligations. In further breaking the numbers down we look at the debt to equity ratio of the three companies. Ford’s debt to equity ratio is at 6.66, while GM’s is at 3.26. With those numbers we can see that Ford has been more aggressive in growing the company by financing the company’s growth with debt. In regards to Chrysler some of the information was not readily available, as they are currently not a publically traded corporation anymore, and have been taken private since 2007. Chrysler will become publically traded again in September of 2014, as the company finishes the merger with current majority shareholders in FIAT. Financial information for the above figures were taken from Annual Reports listed on the companies official