Hertz Goes Bankrupt
Hertz went down last night. Very unfortunate for a company which began life in 1918, renting cars to Americans. It survived wars, survived recessions and depression but it had no answer to a virus! I was in Intel’s Ronler Acres Campus in Hillsboro, Oregon in 2018, for an event; I rode Hertz. The centennial celebration was evident. But that is business: lived 100 years, but died two years later. Hope it can be restructured back into semi-operations. If not, Enterprise will ramp up prices as an emerging monopolist in most markets.
Hertz filed for bankruptcy Friday night, the latest victim of the sudden economic downturn sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company has been renting cars since 1918, when it set up shop with a dozen Ford Model Ts, and has survived the Great Depression, the virtual halt of US auto production during World War II and numerous oil price shocks. By declaring bankruptcy, Hertz says it intends to stay in business while restructuring its debts and emerging a financially healthier company."The impact of Covid-19 on travel demand was sudden and dramatic, causing an abrupt decline in the company's revenue and future bookings," said the company's statement. It said while it too immediate action in response to the crisis, "uncertainty remains as to when revenue will return and when the used-car market will fully re-open for sales, which necessitated today's action."
A virus came and revealed that the world got no clue on how to handle uncertainties. If this was a playbook on how to manage a pandemic, may future generations never imitate or copy this playbook, because it was a useless one; it didn't help anyone.
We are still waiting for the second wave and spikes from states who ended up reopening their economies, because that's the only possibility the prophets of doom foresaw.
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In years to come, questions will be asked on how the decisions and actions taken in response to this virus really helped anyone or stopped anyone from dying.
At least more of experts are now admitting that total lockdown was a bad call, we wanted to stop people from dying, but ended putting more lives on the precipice.
More of these types of news are on the way, brace up!
