Renault

Mack Trucks Inc., founded 90 years ago by descendants of a man who emigrated from France to escape religious persecution, has been taken over by the huge French government-owned automotive conglomerate, Renault Vehicules Industriels.Renault announced yesterday that its controversial $6.25-a-share bid for control of the Allentown, Pa.-based truck-maker had succeeded, setting off industry speculation about restructuring of the money-losing operation.Renault announced that it had won control of 93.1 percent of Mack's shares by the 9 p.m., Sept.

DETROIT -- In Paris last week, Carlos Ghosn looked like a man realizing his legacy might be defined by a deal that never happened. Despite Ghosn's unquestioned brilliance and personal charm, the auto industry's irresistible force seemed to be spinning its wheels against an immovable object: General Motors Corp.'s conviction that the alliance Ghosn proposed wouldn't do it much good. Ghosn, whose melding of Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. into a global power made him a pop-culture icon in France, Japan and his native Brazil, was uncharacteristically defensive in Paris.

PARIS -- After two years of partnership and several months of complex negotiations that were concluded only on Friday, Renault of France and Volvo of Sweden announced yesterday that they would merge on Jan. 1, forming the world's sixth-largest automotive group.The merger, which had long been rumored and became widely anticipated over the weekend, is aimed at allowing the two companies to weather the severe recession buffeting the European automobile industry. It will also strengthen them as they prepare for the tougher competition that will come when all restrictions on Japanese auto sales in the European Community are lifted in January 1999.

Talks aimed at building a three-way partnership of General Motors Corp. and the Renault-Nissan alliance have ended in disagreement over GM's insistence that the French and Japanese companies should pay it a multibillion-dollar premium to go ahead with the proposal. GM Chief Executive Officer G. Richard Wagoner Jr. said a partnership under the terms Renault and Nissan Motor Co. demanded would have benefited them the most while preventing his company from pursuing ties with other automakers.

Mack Trucks Inc.'s investors and workers will have to wait until Monday to find out who won the game of financial "chicken" that decided the 100-year-old truck-maker's fate.Spokesmen for Renault Vehicules Industriels in New York said yesterday that it would take several days to find out whether their company had received enough stock to take over troubled, Allentown, Pa.-based Mack by the 9 p.m. Friday deadline.The French automotive giant had said that if it did not have control of 90 percent of Mack's stock by last night, its takeover bid would fail and that the maker of bulldog-emblazoned trucks might be forced into bankruptcy.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Despite massive layoffs, Mack Trucks Inc. has continued to hemorrhage cash and lose market share in the year since French industrial giant Renault Vehicules Industriels took it over.In his first wide-ranging public discussion of Mack since taking command last fall, Chairman Elios Pascual yesterday angrily denied rumors that Renault would give up on the last U.S. integrated truckmaker -- that is, the last that makes all its own components.Mack produces its engines and transmissions at a plant in Hagerstown.

PARIS -- Renault SA, which owns 37 percent of Japan's Nissan Motor Co., said yesterday that it had agreed to buy bankrupt South Korean rival Samsung Motor Inc. for an undisclosed price. Samsung Motor's creditors will meet Monday to ratify the accord, Renault said, declining to give further details. The Korean Economic Daily reported Thursday that Renault had raised its offer by $90 million to $540 million. Samsung Motor declined to comment further. Buying South Korea's smallest automaker would let Renault enter the country's closed auto market, which is recovering from recession, as the company seeks to tap rising demand for cars in Asia.

NEW YORK -- Fear not, Volvo fans, your solid car will not be replaced with a rattly Renault any time soon.That, at least, was the message brought to America by Pehr G. Gyllenhammar, Volvo's longtime chief executive and head of the committee that oversees the new Renault-Volvo car company.Mr. Gyllenhammar, on the last leg of a two-continent trip to convince analysts and consumers that the two companies' merger was a good idea, said Renault-Volvo RVA would keep a divided product line.Up to $5 billion would be saved by the end of the decade on joint purchasing and development of basic technology, he said, but the company would produce two distinctly different lines of cars.

Paris--A mile up the Seine River from its once-famous Billancourt auto works, Renault's stylish new headquarters exudes pride and self-confidence. Its new line of cars is popular across the continent, its engines power the prestigious Formula 1 world driving champions and, alone among European automakers, the company made a profit last year.Renault's recent success caps one of the great turnarounds in French industry. Only a few years ago, the automaker was hobbled by mismanagement and headed for bankruptcy.

DETROIT -- In Paris last week, Carlos Ghosn looked like a man realizing his legacy might be defined by a deal that never happened. Despite Ghosn's unquestioned brilliance and personal charm, the auto industry's irresistible force seemed to be spinning its wheels against an immovable object: General Motors Corp.'s conviction that the alliance Ghosn proposed wouldn't do it much good. Ghosn, whose melding of Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. into a global power made him a pop-culture icon in France, Japan and his native Brazil, was uncharacteristically defensive in Paris.

Bowing to a request by its biggest shareholder, Kirk Kerkorian, the board of General Motors directed its chief executive, G. Richard Wagoner Jr., yesterday to begin "exploratory talks" with Renault and Nissan on a potentially historic three-way alliance. The board's decision to put Wagoner in charge of the discussions, rather than a board committee as Kerkorian had urged, represented a strong show of support by the directors for the embattled chief executive. The board also reiterated its backing of the turnaround strategy of Wagoner, who serves as the board's chairman.

DETROIT -- In a startling move that could reshape General Motors Corp. and the global automotive industry, GM's largest single shareholder has urged France's Renault SA and Japan's Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. to buy a significant minority stake in the automaker to form a three-way global alliance. Nissan and Renault are each considering buying a 10 percent stake in GM, which, combined with the 9.9 percent owned by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, could exert heavy pressure on GM's board and Chief Executive Officer G. Richard Wagoner Jr. to make substantial cost cuts, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Platform, by Michel Houellebecq. Translated from the French by Frank Wynne. Knopf. 272 pages. $25. Toward the end of this mordant misadventure in international sex tourism, the narrator of Platform begins emerging from catatonic emotional detachment to consider alternative ways of being. Imagine: Love. Heavens: A wife? Mon Dieu: children. Not to worry about these horrors. No way such reassurance winds up in a book by French novelist Michel Houellebecq, at least not at this point in the writer's career.

PARIS -- Renault SA, which owns 37 percent of Japan's Nissan Motor Co., said yesterday that it had agreed to buy bankrupt South Korean rival Samsung Motor Inc. for an undisclosed price. Samsung Motor's creditors will meet Monday to ratify the accord, Renault said, declining to give further details. The Korean Economic Daily reported Thursday that Renault had raised its offer by $90 million to $540 million. Samsung Motor declined to comment further. Buying South Korea's smallest automaker would let Renault enter the country's closed auto market, which is recovering from recession, as the company seeks to tap rising demand for cars in Asia.

TOKYO -- Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second-biggest carmaker, will accept Renault SA's $5.3 billion bid for a 35 percent stake tomorrow, the largest foreign investment in a Japanese manufacturer, analysts said yesterday.Nissan executives will meet today to decide on the French carmaker's offer, which includes a possible stake in the Nissan Diesel Motor Co. truck unit. Nissan and Renault are set to hold a joint conference in Tokyo after Nissan's afternoon board meeting."It's 99.9 percent sure Nissan will approve," said Patrice Solaro, an analyst with Julius Baer France brokerage.

GENEVA -- DaimlerChrysler AG and Renault SA are still weighing whether to take an equity stake in Nissan Motor Co. even as Nissan says it might remain independent if neither European carmaker proposes an attractive enough offer.Executives of the three companies, in interviews yesterday during the Geneva auto show, said that a takeover of even a part of Nissan, Japan's second-largest carmaker, is far from certain, though DaimlerChrysler and Renault each want to increase their presence in Asia.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Britain's Nigel Mansell led all the way and Italian teammate Riccardo Patrese finished second as the new Williams-Renault cars dominated the first race on the 1992 circuit.Mansell, who had won the previous Formula One event in South Africa in 1985, opened a huge lead in the early stages of the race and never was challenged.He covered 72 laps on the 2.64-mile Kyalami race track in 1 hour, 36 minutes, 45.320 seconds.Mansell's archrival, world champion Ayrton Senna of Brazil, was third in a McLaren-Honda, and Michael Schumacher of Germany was fourth in a Benetton-Ford.

Platform, by Michel Houellebecq. Translated from the French by Frank Wynne. Knopf. 272 pages. $25. Toward the end of this mordant misadventure in international sex tourism, the narrator of Platform begins emerging from catatonic emotional detachment to consider alternative ways of being. Imagine: Love. Heavens: A wife? Mon Dieu: children. Not to worry about these horrors. No way such reassurance winds up in a book by French novelist Michel Houellebecq, at least not at this point in the writer's career.

Hatem al-Husseini, 54, a Palestinian academic and leader in PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization, died of cancer yesterday in his native Jerusalem. He was a member of one of Jerusalem's most prominent Palestinian families and was president of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem and a member of the Palestine National Council, the Palestinian parliament in exile.Rabbi Joshua Goldberg, 98, once the highest ranking Jewish chaplain in the U.S. Navy and a rabbi emeritus of the Astoria Center of Israel in Queens, died Saturday at his home in West Palm Beach, Fla. Rabbi Goldberg, who was born in Belarus, the son of a lumber merchant, came to the United States during World War I after deserting the Russian army.

When he sat down to draw his editorial cartoon, Dennis Renault wanted to make a point. But he didn't know how remarkably successful he would be.What Renault wanted to say through his drawing was that Louis Farrakhan was wrong when he said: "You can't be a racist by talking -- only by acting."That's what Farrakhan said in his most recent verbal attack on Jews.Renault, who draws for California's Sacramento Bee, disagreed with Farrakhan. Most rational people do.So he wanted to do a cartoon that would make the point that words can be enough to earn you the label of racist.