10 American Companies That Will Disappear in 2011

Here's a list from DailyFinance.com:
Saab USA

Saab has tried to create a renaissance of sorts. The company was sold to Netherlands specialty carmaker Spyker last year. Spyker took an awful risk, particularly in the U.S. -- because Saab is one of the few car firms that did recover when the U.S. car market expanded last year. The total number of cars and light vehicles sold in America in 2010 was up 11% to 11.6 million.

Sales of some niche brands surged. Porsche sales in the U.S. were up 29% to over 29,000. Audi sales rose 22% to over 101,000. But Saab sales collapsed -- falling 37% to 5,445. American car companies have also created new lines of vehicles that have begun to sell well, particularly in the middle market where Saab operates. The Japanese still control the lower-price, high-quality portion of the market. And Korea's Hyundai took share from nearly everyone else last year, as its sales rose over 24% to just above 538,000. There's no room in the American market for tiny operator like Saab.

Office Depot

The company is running third in a three-horse race with Office Max and Staples. Office Depot also has to compete with small business centers in Sam's Clubs and Costcos. The firm operates on razor-thin margins, while managing 1,150 locations -- which are very costly due to employee and real estate expenses. Office Depot is a strong candidate to be taken over by one of its rivals or a broader retail chain like Target.

The market is too competitive for Office Depot to stand on its own. A consolidation in the sector would allow a merged operation to cut thousands of people and close hundreds of locations. Operating margins, then, would not be so modest.

Dean Foods

The maker of dairy products like Land O'Lakes and Silk has struggled as much as any other large public company this year. The costs of raw milk, butterfat, soybeans and sugar have risen sharply. Dean Foods has also been crippled by debt. The firm's shares were down as much as 60% at one point during the last 12 months.

Despite all the bad news, hedge fund investor David Tepper bought a 7.35% stake in the company. Dean Foods shares rose 9% after the announcement. Dean has already sold its yogurt business to Schreiber Foods. And Tepper, one of the cleverest investors on Wall Street, has probably bet the balance of Dean Foods will be sold off in parts. Probably the Fresh Dairy Direct-Morningstar and WhiteWave/Alpro business units would draw the most bidders. Watch for Dean to be broken up, to satisfy debtholders and arge investors.

Frontier Airlines

The carrier is owned by Republic Airways Holdings and was bankrupt when Republic bought it in 2009. Republic recently merged another of its holdings, Midwest Air, into Frontier. Denver-based Frontier is simply too small to compete in the domestic carrier market -- which has become increasingly dominated by large airlines that are growing due to mergers.

Wall Street has also become increasingly worried about Republic's future. Its shares are down 13% over the last quarter, while shares in rival JetBlue are up 9% during the same time frame. Frontier's Milwaukee hub, which serves the East and Midwest, and its Denver hub, which serves the West, the South, and Mexico, would be valuable to a larger carrier. Airline mergers and buyouts like the Continental/United deal and Delta's takeover of Northwest are popular in the industry because they allow for personnel reductions and route cuts -- as well as trimming the number of aircraft that have to be maintained. Two airlines together can have a better margin than separately. Frontier is a buyout target; its brand is not.

Sara Lee

The company that makes Ball Park hot dogs and Jimmy Dean breakfast foods is already being circled by corporations in similar businesses and by private equity firms -- groups interested in breaking Sara Lee up. Apollo Global Management has recently considered a bid. JBS, the Brazilian meat processor, made an offer that was turned down.

Media reports say Sara Lee is in the midst of a plan to separate its coffee and meat businesses. If that happens, the new companies may be named Hillshire Farm and Pickwick Tea. A deal to sell off pieces of the firm will probably happen before midyear.

Borders

The large bookstore chain is almost gone already. The only question remaining is whether it will be dissolved or sold to a related retailer like Barnes & Noble. It appears Borders has little choice other than to go bankrupt, given its debt and cash-flow situation. Two ominous signs for the bookseller: It says it's unable to pay some of its largest publishers for their books.

Border's stock also dropped under $1 a share, a warning sign that the shares could eventually be delisted -- that is, if Borders lasts long enough. The company's 500 locations may have value to a buyer, but its name does not, being associated with little more than failure.

Gateway

Gateway was bought by Taiwanese PC giant Acer in 2007. Acer is currently the No. 3 PC company in the world after Dell and Hewlett-Packard. The buyout was not unlike the one that China-based Lenovo made of the IBM PC division. Lenovo found the IBM brand was useful for marketing in the U.S., but dropped the name in favor of its own. Lenovo saw no reason to support two brands any longer and wanted to be recognized by its corporate name in the U.S. market.

Acer, meanwhile, has become an established brand in the U.S. over the last two years, particularly for its netbooks and notebooks -- while the Gateway brand has faded. Gateway is still a stand-alone corporation but will likely disappear this year.

DollarThrifty

Dollar Thrifty has a tentative deal to be bought by Avis Budget -- but the FTC has not given the transaction final approval. If the buyout closes, then the Avis, Budget, Dollar and Thrifty car rental businesses will all be under one roof. Dollar Thrifty has lost any momentum in its efforts to expand. The company said in December that it would add 31 new franchises in the U.S. It has 1,550 locations in 81 countries worldwide.

Ironically, Dollar Thrifty is itself the result of a merger of two companies. Thrifty was owned by Chrysler and combined with Dollar in 1990. Avis should close its takeover by mid-2011

Answers Corp.

The online search firm's stock is down 40% in five years. Google, in comparison was up nearly 40% during that period. The smaller company had third-quarter revenue of only $4.5 million, which means it barely has a reason to be a public company. Operating income for the quarter was only $379,000, and its total average page views daily are about 14 million.

Answers will likely be sold to a company that could use its technology platform and unique visitor traffic. This might include one of the portals or large online content companies like News Corp. The company's market value is only $65 million, which is pocket change for a really large Web company.

E*Trade

There are too many big discount brokers in the U.S. There have been persistent rumors that E*Trade will be bought by one of its larger competitors --Charles Schwab or TDAmeritrade. The rumors even caused a large move in E*Trade's options early last month. Broker Collins Stewart downgraded E*Trade shares recently, pointing to problems with loan portfolio growth on the banking side of the online brokerage's business.

Wall Street's view of the other two discounters is much more positive. The brokerage business has been ideal for consolidation for years. Full-service brokers went through a large number of mergers and acquisitions in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. The reason for the rollups were compelling then as they are now for E*Trade. There are a number of expensive duplicate functions among these companies -- which include marketing costs, trading platforms and administration. Either Schwab or TDAmeritrade will use those economies of scale to buy E*Trade, the weakest member of the sector.

10 American Companies That Will Disappear in 2011
DOUGLAS MCINTYRE
01/18/11
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/investing/10-american-companies-that-will-disappear-in-2011/19798647

A Wee Taste of Europe: Will Americans Bite?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/automobiles/autoreviews/12fiesta.html

September 10, 2010
A Wee Taste of Europe: Will Americans Bite?
EZRA DYER

THERE are two types of small cars in America. First, there are the bare-bones, price-is-the-entire-object ennui-boxes. These are the cars you end up driving when you stubbornly resist the $2-a-day upgrade at the rental counter.

A few years back, Chevrolet of Canada caught flak for running an ad for the Cavalier that basically said, “Hey, it’s better than taking the bus.” The pitch offended bus riders and public transportation advocates, but I admire that honesty. Cars that duke it out at the very bottom of the market — like the basest Nissan Versa or Hyundai Accent, each priced around $10,000 — promise mobility, and that’s about it.

It took a long time for car companies to realize that drivers in the United States might consider a small vehicle that wasn’t ruthlessly built to a price. The modern Mini Cooper was the trailblazer, proving that Americans might buy a diminutive hatchback on its own merits, even when they could afford something bigger. Cars like the Mini and the Honda Fit offer a more upscale driving experience than the frill-free automotive flounders that scour the bottom of the market for rental sales, college students and frugal commuters.

The Ford Fiesta is a subcompact in the ambitious Fit idiom. It’s not the least expensive small car you can buy (or even, perhaps, the least expensive Ford). But the 2011 Fiesta hews to the European hatchback ideal, and Europeans hold the bizarre expectation that small vehicles should act like real cars.

First, a bit of history on the nameplate: in the late 1970s and early ’80s, Ford sold a hatchback called the Fiesta. In the late ’80s, it introduced a hatchback named the Festiva. Now we’re back to the Fiesta. I asked Ford what the rationale was behind the Fiesta-to-Festiva-to-Fiesta name change, and the response was, “The Festiva was a different car.”

Right. One which happened to be the smallest Ford hatchback, just like the car it replaced. It’s as if Ford canceled the Mustang, replaced it with a V-8 muscle car named the Mutsvang, and then declared that the two vehicles had nothing to do with each other. And I’m afraid that’s the best answer I have for you on that. This Fiesta is a far cry from the bygone Korean-built Festiva, which came with 12-inch steel wheels suggesting that somewhere, a lawn tractor was up on blocks.

Ford’s new baby is available as a sedan or five-door hatchback and offers upmarket equipment like a 6-speed dual-clutch sequential transmission, heated leather seats and the excellent Sync multimedia system.

There are still a few obvious cost-cutting measures. For instance, the rear brakes are drums, not discs. But then again, so are they on a Maybach — the 1932 Maybach Zeppelin, to be exact.

Rear drums aside, the Fiesta is about as safe as it gets in this class. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety named the Fiesta the first minicar to earn the designation of Top Safety Pick. (The distinction applies to Fiestas built after July, when Ford strengthened the door handles.)

Regardless of the build date, the Fiesta interior has enough air bags to raise the Edmund Fitzgerald. And electronic stability control is standard.

There is one engine, a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder that squeezes out an indifferent 120 horsepower. So the Fiesta is slow. Then again, so are its competitors. But you should not drive alongside rivers near college campuses, because you might get passed by varsity crew teams.

The Fiesta’s best talent is making you forget its size once you’re actually moving down the road. The body is so stiff and quiet that I kept finding myself speeding, despite the modest power.

The suspension quietly soaks up impacts while maintaining a controlled ride — there’s none of the Clydesdale clop you hear when the engineers try to dial a soft ride into an overly flexible chassis. You get a sense that the limits are low but that the car doesn’t mind frolicking on an on-ramp now and then.

Mainly, though, the Fiesta seems optimized for the role it will probably fill for most people: commuting. There’s very little wind noise, you have Sync to handle your smartphone and play podcasts, and the fuel economy is excellent — 40 miles per gallon on the highway, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. When you do need to gas up, Ford’s capless filler is one of those small delights that makes life a little easier.

If you had to spend a couple of hours a day in a Fiesta, my sense is that it would endear itself rather than instill resentment. Hey, you don’t like the color of the cupholder lighting? You can change it, boss. It aims to please, the Fiesta.

The Fiesta is really the exemplar of the domestic hatchback’s newfound respectability. But the main challenge for small cars in America is that there’s not much financial incentive to buy them.

In Europe and Japan, driving a smaller car brings tax advantages. Then there’s the cost of fuel, which is currently more than $6 a gallon in most of Europe. When every mile per gallon and gram of carbon dioxide counts on the bottom line, it makes sense to buy the smallest car that will get you to work on time.

And to that end, the Fiesta is a hit. It’s Ford’s No. 1 seller in Europe, with half a million sold in the last year.

But in the United States, unless your car is subject to the gas-guzzler penalty, the taxman doesn’t care whether you have a 1.6-liter 4 or a 550-horsepower V-8. So the financial rationale for entry-level cars mostly amounts to what you save on the purchase price, relative to the next car up the ladder. And for Ford, there’s precious little breathing room between the Fiesta and its bigger sibling, the Focus.

The Fiesta starts at $13,995 for a basic sedan with a 5-speed manual transmission and can cost more than $21,000 for a loaded five-door SES. A couple of months ago, I grabbed a Ford dealership flier that advertised the 2011 Fiesta SE for $16,895. The same dealership was hawking the 2010 Focus SEL, with a leather interior, for $15,495.

The Focus concedes a few m.p.g. — its highway mileage is in the mid-30s — but it offers more passenger room and 20 extra horsepower. The Fiesta is technologically superior, but will buyers care about a dual-clutch gearbox when they can get more car for less money in the same dealership? I know I’m comparing leftover Focuses with 2011 Fiestas, but even once the Focus is redesigned, there will never be much daylight between these two cars.

At current gas prices, the E.P.A. estimates that fueling up a Focus instead of a Fiesta would cost an extra $219 a year (assuming 15,000 miles of driving). Somehow, I doubt that the prospect of saving 60 cents a day will be the deciding factor in many new-car purchases.

However, it was barely more than two years ago that gasoline passed $4 a gallon and the Honda Civic started outselling the Ford F-150. I’ll wager that gas prices will eventually pass $4 again. And when they do, the Fiesta will be the life of the party.

Future Car Trends

http://autos.aol.com/article/general/v2/_a/future-car-trends/20071029171409990001

Future Car Trends
Upcoming vehicle technology and trends just around the corner.
By JON GROMER, AOL AUTOS

In our lifetime we will witness the age of 100 mile-per gallon cars, lifetime headlights and taillights, streaming entertainment and information content, and cars that drive themselves. Actually, all this will be here a lot sooner than you think -- within the next few years. Here's the stuff of automotive dreams, already on queue for production.

Engines

Diesels are aiming to be the new hybrids. The problem is, diesel's used to be dirty engines and have had a hard time making any progress in the U.S. market. But new emissions technology solves that, giving these oil burners a clean bill of health in all 50 states. The high cost of diesels is also coming down to more affordable levels. Look for these cleaner, more efficient diesel engines in the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Volkswagen Jetta TDI; Mercedes' E320, ML320 and GL320 BLUETEC models, Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra 2500/3500 HD, Dodge Ram 2500/3500 and the Ford F-250/F-350/F-450. Also on the horizon is a diesel powered Honda Accord, set to debut in 2009, which is apparently capable of 52 mpg.

Hybrids are hot now (who's going to argue with 50 MPG?), but they'll be getting hotter as prices in this segment also come down. J.D. Power predicts 345,000 hybrids will be sold in '07 -- a 35 percent increase over '06. Honda and Hyundai are gunning for the big mileage (and sales) numbers by dropping their smallest engine into their most lightweight chassis (a Honda Fit-sized car and Hyundai Accent respectively). Also look for large models, like the Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid and Saturn's Vue and Aura Green Line models to deliver modest fuel savings at practical prices and stylish packaging.

"Internet reports abound of home-customized Priuses topping the 100 mpg mark with the advantage of enhanced battery packs..."

More exciting than both diesels and hybrids is a technology that has gone from theory to aluminum in the last couple of years because of advances in computer technology. HCCI, or homogeneous charge compression ignition (also see more on HCCI at Autoblog), is a gas engine that acts like a diesel motor. Like a diesel engine, gas inside the cylinder is ignited through compression and the heat generated by the engine itself. No spark plugs. The result? Diesel economy and efficiency at roughly half the weight and materials cost of a conventional gas engine with no need to treat the exhaust. GM demonstrated two vehicles fitted with HCCI engines in August. Mercedes wowed crowds even more recently at the Frankfurt auto show with their DiesOtto implementation that merges HCCI technology with a mild hybrid module to produce 238 hp, 295 lb.-ft. of torque and 39 mpg in a vehicle the size of an S-Class sedan. Mercedes squeezed that performance from a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine.

All of these technologies are stop-gap solutions until the most efficient answer arrives on our shores -- hydrogen. How soon? FreedomCAR, a partnership of the U.S. Department of Energy and the United States Council for Automotive Research, projects that hydrogen technology will be broadly available to the masses by 2015. On the fuel cell side, Honda has indicated that their new FCX Concept will slide alongside the existing previous-generation FCX already on the road by 2008. GM's Project Driveaway is putting at least 100 fuel-cell powered vehicles in the hands of lucky testers this year, but the hydrogen-powered Equinoxes are not available for sale. As for hydrogen combustion engines, small numbers are popping up as manufacturers like BMW (see the BMW Hydrogen 7 at Autoblog) keep real-world testing and refining concepts, but there are no production plans as of yet. Obviously, both solutions face infrastructure challenges for refueling that are still being worked out.

Until the heady days of hydrogen power are realized, you still have radical alternatives to diesel and conventional hybrids if you want to drive green.

Internet reports abound of home-customized Priuses topping the 100 mpg mark with the advantage of enhanced battery packs and modified software keeping the cars running on electric power far longer than their stock counterparts. Plug-in hybrids hold the potential to dwarf the fuel economy potential of diesels and hybrids, but cheeky price points, mostly from the cost of hefty battery packs, might be what are holding off production announcements from manufacturers. Not even a date can be pegged to the darling of poster boards, Chevrolet's Volt. While plug-ins are being researched and developed by major manufacturers like Toyota, Ford and GM, the impatient can check out a handful of small companies which offer plug-in conversion kits for hybrids, complete with instructions.

Tesla Roadster

Or the impatient can skip the gas motor all together. The smooth exterior lines and booked solid pre-orders of the Tesla proved that the electric car is far from dead ... it's just pretty expensive. Miles Automotive Group aims to change that. Their coming XS500, an electric midsize sedan, will arrive in the states in 2008 with a top speed of 80 mpg and a range of 120 miles. The price: $30,000. The XS500 could be joined by a $45,000 electric sport-utility truck and SUV from Phoenix Motorcars sometime in 2009. The SUV and SUT would start with a 130 mile range, a 0-60 time of 10 seconds and a top speed of 95 mph. Additional models coming to U.S. pavement (or already there) include Zap's intriguing Zap-X, Wrightspeed's blazingly fast Wrightspeed X1, and the very affordable NmG from Myers Motors.

Entertainment

A survey conducted by TRG, Telematics Research Group Inc., reveals that nearly 70% of announced upcoming 2008 vehicles for sale in the U.S. will have a Bluetooth communications system either as optional or standard equipment. Navigation systems will be available in 80% of coming 2008 vehicles, according to the same survey. We're at the point where digital entertainment storage systems like Microsoft/Ford's SYNC (see video of SYNC at Autoblog) and Chrysler's MyGiG (see MyGig at Autoblog) are about to go from super cool to everyday accessories like an iPod thanks to broad introductions that span the luxury segment to value-driven cars like the Ford Focus. What's the next frontier?

Streaming media is one. Supplier interviews conducted by the Center For Automotive Research (CAR) point to 2010 as the year when customized or on-demand content will be streamed to vehicles. That customized content could span the gamut from television programming and movies to important local updates, along with new, far more robust real-time traffic data through two-way communication. Couple this trend with the fact that vehicle-based digital storage (handy for buffering downloads) will increase and drop in price, and you have a done deal. Almost: CAR notes that the challenge isn't displaying the content, but finding the bandwidth and compression necessary to deliver the programming.

HD Radio

A closer star on the horizon of coming entertainment is HD radio, which is popping up in cars by BMW and Ford this year, and will be added to, at least, the Jaguar XJ and Hyundai's Genesis for 2008. Using technology licensed from a company called iBiquity Digital, HD radio promises to deliver AM radio in FM-quality sound and FM channels in CD-quality sound, along with accompanying data that will begin with artist, song and station information. Digital radio gives a broader frequency response to channels, transforms AM radio from mono to stereo, and allows for better stereo separation. Check out iBiquity Digital to hear the difference. Bob Struble, president and CEO of iBiquity sees next-generation HD radios offering users the chance to buy songs and advertised products or even bring TiVo-like qualities to the radio experience. iBiquity estimates that by 2008 more than 90% of the U.S. population will be reached by HD radio broadcasters.

Safety

The Lexus LS 460 is the first vehicle for sale in the U.S. that can park itself. Audi's dynamic steering system adjusts the driver's steering inputs when the vehicle senses that the handling limits have been reached, even making slight corrective inputs on its own when things are getting out of hand. The Lane Departure Prevention System on Infiniti's new EX35 manipulates the brakes at individual wheels to help steer the ute back into its lane when it senses an unintentional drift. Welcome to the brave new world of Active Safety 2.0, where your vehicle humbly offers assistance to keep you out of trouble, in addition to trying to save you when you're in it.

In 2005 General Motors announced that the 2008 Opel Vectra would be the first car to boast Traffic Assist, a system that allows the car to drive itself at speeds up to 60 mph -- even in heavy traffic. The system sees road signs, bends and other vehicles in the road to adjust the car?s trajectory and speed according to everything going on around it. As advanced and capable as the system may be, composed of processors, lasers and a video camera, it won?t be offered for sale in the United States, but in Germany. Why? Two reasons: one, we live in the most litigious nation in the world. Two, we Americans, as a mass of consumers, aren't comfortable paying additional price premiums for the safety technology we crave -- we feel it should be included in the vehicle's price.

One coming revolution we'll definitely see is brake-by-wire technology. A brake-by-wire system replaces the hydraulic hardware of conventional brakes with faster-acting and more environmentally friendly electric motors and relays that should be more reliable and take up less space. We're already seeing conventional hydraulic systems get smarter with radar-based augmentations like Mercedes' Brake Assist Plus and Infiniti's Preview Braking by pressurizing the brake system earlier, allowing for a faster response and shorter braking distance when the driver decides to hit the pedal. A fully electronic braking system should further improve on stopping times and distances. Automotive News predicts brake-by-wire systems will surface in 2011.

Whether or not you purchase a vehicle with any, or all, of these trends one thing is certain ... automotive dreams do come true.