By Amy Antenora
The Week in Review offers a snapshot of the most highly read stories of the week as seen on aftermarketNews. To access the complete stories, simply click on the highlighted links. If you missed reading one of our daily news emails, click on any of the dates listed at the bottom of the page to begin catching up on the latest industry news.
Two significant stories from last week have continued to rank in high importance among AMN ’s readers this week.
One of these stories reported that Carl Icahn, billionaire investor and chairman of Federal-Mogul, now owns 75 percent of Federal-Mogul stock. This occurred after Icahn bought 50.1 million shares of the stock from the Southfield, MI-based parts supplier last week at a cost of $900 million. With these shares bought back, Federal-Mogul finally closed a deal with the asbestos trust fund case, which led the supplier to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection back in 2001.
Another important story that continues to impact readers is the death of Boyd Coddington, who died last Wednesday at the age of 63. Coddington was recognized worldwide as a SEMA Hall of Famer and longtime hot-rod industry icon. He is credited with being the winningest custom-car designer of all time.
While still in consideration in the U.S. Congress, state versions of the Right to Repair bill have been introduced in the New York and New Jersey senates. The Right to Repair bill would mandate that car companies share with independent repair shops the same vehicle service information, as well as software and tools that they provide their new car dealer franchises. Failure to adhere to this bill could result in fines or legal action, if passed.
In other news this week, industry veteran Jerry Hendrix has joined Melling Engine Parts as its Eastern regional manager on March 1. Hendrix will be in charge of sales and will have direct account management responsibilities. This position includes working with individual distributors and production engine remanufacturers located in the Eastern U.S.
Johnson Controls earned the number-one spot in the motor vehicle parts category on Fortune Magazine’s list of America ’s Most Admired Companies, making the list of AMN’s top news stories this week as well. Fortune’s list features companies that excel in areas of innovation, people management, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, quality of products/services and long-term investment. This marks the third consecutive year that Johnson Controls has received the award.
Rounding out the most-read stories this week was the news that Ford Motor Co. is cutting shifts at three of its plants in Chicago, IL; Louisville, KY; and Cleveland, OH. These cuts will affect 2,500 workers who are under contract with the United Auto Workers. Ford has recently seen large sales drops in the products made by these assembly plants. Information regarding the future of more production cuts and the fate of the workers is still not available, according to Ford.
* Nicholas DiSabatino, AMN editorial assistant, contributed to this report.
To view all of the news from the past week, simply click on the link for each corresponding day:
