Ford Motor Company is an American automaker and the world's
fifth largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales. Based in Dearborn,
Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, the automaker was founded by Henry Ford, on June
16, 1903. Ford Motor Company would go on to become one of the largest and most
profitable companies in the world, as well as being one of the few to survive
the Great Depression. The largest family-controlled company in the world, the
Ford Motor Company has been in continuous family control for over 110 years.
Ford now encompasses two brands: Ford and Lincoln. Ford once owned 5 other
luxury brands, they were Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Mercury.
But over time those brands were sold to other companies and Mercury was
discontinued.
On June 16, 1903, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated,
with 12 investors owning a total of 1000 shares. Ford and Malcomson together
retained 51% of the new company in exchange for their earlier investments. When
the total stock ownership was tabulated, shares in the company were: Henry Ford
(255 shares), Alexander Y. Malcomson (255 shares), John S. Gray (105 shares),
John W. Anderson (50 shares), Horace Rackham (50 shares), Horace E. Dodge (50
shares), John F. Dodge (50 shares), Charles T. Bennett (50 shares), Vernon C.
Fry (50 shares), Albert Strelow (50 shares), James Couzens (25 shares), and
Charles J. Woodall (10 shares).
At the first stockholder meeting on June 18, Gray was
elected president, Ford vice-president, and James Couzens secretary. Despite
Gray's misgivings, the Ford Motor Company was immediately profitable, with
profits by October 1, 1903 of almost $37,000. A dividend of 10% was paid that
October, an additional dividend of 20% at the beginning of 1904, and another
68% in June 1904. Two dividends of 100% each in June and July 1905 brought the
total investor profits to nearly 300% in just over 2 years; 1905 total profits
were almost $300,000.
However, there were internal frictions in the company that
Gray was nominally in charge of. Most of the investors, both Malcomson and Gray
included, had their own businesses to attend to; only Ford and Couzens worked
full-time at the company. The issue came to a head when the principal
stockholders, Ford and Malcomson, quarreled over the future direction of the
company. Gray sided with Ford. By early 1906 Malcomson was effectively frozen
out of the Ford Motor Company, and in May sold his shares to Henry Ford. John
S. Gray died unexpectedly in 1906, and his position as Ford's president was
taken over by Ford himself soon afterward.
Ford was subject to lawsuits or threats there of from the
Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers early in its history. The
Association claimed patent rights to most gasoline-powered automobiles. After
several years of legal wrangling, the Association eventually dropped its case
against Ford in 1911.