HUMMER Brand Sale Could be Complete by June 2009

General Motors has effectively said that HUMMER will no longer hold a place in its portfolio, leaving two options on the table: sell HUMMER, or shut it down. We’re becoming increasingly confident that GM has found a buyer for HUMMER, and maintaining that selling the brand could be the best possible scenario for a strong future given GM’s current troubles. Separated by 12 months, the timeline similarities thus far between GM’s sale of HUMMER and Ford’s sale of Land Rover suggest GM could finalize a deal by the middle of this year.

Here is the dissection:

June 2007: Ford announces it plans to sell Land Rover
June 2008: GM announces HUMMER will undergo a strategic review

August 2007: Tata, Mahindra, Cerberus, and others express interest in Land Rover
August 2008: Mahindra, a Russian billionaire, and China’s Changfeng all deny interest in acquiring HUMMER brand, following months of speculation and rumors.

March 2008: Ford announces the sale of Land Rover’s operations to Tata Motors.
March 2009: General Motors expected to announce HUMMER’s fate by March 31st.

June 2008: Tata Motors finalizes purchase Land Rover from Ford.
June 2009: General Motors expected to finalize HUMMER sale.

Predicting an accurate timeline for HUMMER becomes much easier when just a year prior, another major U.S. automotive manufacturer was finalizing the sale of its luxury off-road SUV division.

The timeline suggests that after announcing a sale in March, it will only take a few months to structure and complete a deal. While speculation continues on who will buy the HUMMER brand, when the deal could go down is much easier to predict.

Ford/Tata timeline source: Wikipedia