Hertz

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. , aiming to focus more on building cars and trucks, said yesterday it will sell its Hertz Corp. rental car business for $5.6 billion in cash. Dearborn-based Ford, the nation's second-biggest automaker, said it will sell all shares of common stock in Hertz, its wholly owned subsidiary, to a private-equity group composed of Clayton Dubilier & Rice, the Carlyle Group, and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity in a deal valued at about $15 billion, including debt.

Twenty-five former Hertz drivers at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport have filed a lawsuit claiming they were fired based on their race, religion and nationality. The former employees are Muslims who were born in Somalia. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in King County Superior Court claims Hertz Corp. terminated them after they refused to clock out for prayers. The lawsuit claims they had not been required to clock out previously and the rules were changed to target Somali Muslims.

CHICAGO — Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group shareholders have rejected a buyout offer from Hertz, giving an opening for rival bidder Avis Budget Group’s offer for the car rental company. The company said 11.8 million votes were cast for Hertz at a special shareholder meeting yesterday in Chicago, while 13.8 million shares were cast against the deal. There were 4,735 abstentions. Dollar Thrifty’s board had said it preferred Hertz’s offer to one by Avis. Chief executive Scott Thompson said the company respects the vote of its shareholders.

PARK RIDGE, N.J. - Hertz Global Holdings Inc. is withdrawing its offer for Dollar Thrifty, but says it is still interested in buying the rival rental car company. Hertz cited Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group's plan to buy back stock and current market conditions. Hertz had offered $57.60 in cash and 0.8546 shares of Hertz stock for each Dollar Thrifty share. That was a sweetening of a previous offer made by the Park Ridge, N.J., company last year and rejected by Dollar Thrifty shareholders.

SEATTLE - More than two dozen Somali Muslim drivers for Hertz at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are being fired after refusing to clock out for daily breaks during which they normally pray. The 26 workers drive the company's rental cars to and from the airport for cleaning and refueling. They are among 34 Hertz employees suspended Sept. 30 after failing to clock out before breaks. Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, said Hertz agreed during contract negotiations last year that union members would not need to clock out during prayer breaks.

NEW YORK -- Lindsey Benoit thought her three-day trip from New York to New Hampshire would be easy -- until she started looking for a rental car. Benoit, 23, discovered that it's difficult to find a company that will rent to drivers under 25 years old, and even harder to find one that offers younger drivers a good deal. She ended up renting from Hertz Corp. for $400, almost twice what an over-25 driver would pay. "I feel like, even if I gave them my blood type and promised them my firstborn, they would still have been rude and mistrusting," the New York resident said.

Mike Carroll of Leominster was helping his son organize a trip to San Francisco in mid-June to watch the Red Sox play the Giants when he ran into a brick wall. The flight out was no problem and he was able to get tickets for his son and a friend to two of the series' three games. But an excursion to Pebble Beach wasn't so easy to arrange as Carroll's usual rental car company, Avis, said it wouldn't rent to anyone under 25. Greg Carroll is 24. "I find this rather incredible," his dad said in an e-mail seeking advice.

Delta lounge closing Hemmed in by surging fuel costs, Delta Air Lines is cutting back on perks it has offered to passengers even before they stepped onto the plane. The airline is closing nine of its 42 members-only airport lounges, including its main one at Boston's Logan International Airport. The Crown Room Club located between Gates 6 and 7 in Terminal A will shut down Thursday, although the smaller satellite lounge between Gates 17 and 18 will remain open. NICOLE C. WONG Day-trip car rentals Hertz, which has offices in Western Europe, has...

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Ford Motor Co. , which is dealing with a profit slump, made public a series of executive changes yesterday aimed at restoring profitability to its North American automotive operations. Ford also is close to selling its Hertz Corp. rental-car division, a move that would help the struggling automaker raise cash, two executives familiar with the negotiations said. Hertz could sell for as much as $15 billion. Ford said that as part of its revamp Mark Fields, 44, who previously oversaw Ford of Europe and the Premier Automotive Group, was appointed president of The Americas,...

While a lot of attention has been paid in recent weeks to the fees that struggling airlines are adding to ticket prices, car rental companies have been quietly doing the same thing. Industry analysts say the cost of various optional, but heavily promoted, services like navigation units and fuel refilling are adding as much as 20 percent to the overall rental cost. "Renting cars is not a high-margin business," said Neil Abrams, owner of a consulting company that focuses on the rental car industry.

Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market: NYSE Hertz Global Holdings Inc., up 86 cents at $11.87 Citing current market conditions, the car rental company said it is dropping its bid for rival Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. Sony Corp., up $1.45 at $22.06 The electronics company will buy a 50 percent stake in mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson from...

SEATTLE - More than two dozen Somali Muslim drivers for Hertz at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are being fired after refusing to clock out for daily breaks during which they normally pray. The 26 workers drive the company's rental cars to and from the airport for cleaning and refueling. They are among 34 Hertz employees suspended Sept. 30 after failing to clock out before breaks. Teamsters Local 117, which represents the workers, said Hertz agreed during contract negotiations last year that union members would not need to clock out during prayer breaks.

SEATTLE - Thirty-four Muslim drivers for Hertz contended they were suspended for praying during work hours, but the company insisted they were reprimanded for abusing break times. Backed by their union, the drivers protested this week outside the Hertz counter at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where they are based. "This is an outrageous assault on the rights of these workers and appears to be discriminatory based on their religious beliefs," Tracey A. Thompson, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 117, said in a statement.

NEW YORK - For nearly a century, Hertz Corp. has led the rental car business, catering to vacationing families and businesspeople who need cars for a few days or weeks at a time. Now the $8 billion powerhouse is making a big push into the hourly car rental market dominated by Cambridge-based Zipcar Inc., a $240 million company that has yet to make a profit. Hertz, which has car-sharing operations in a handful of US and European cities and on 60 college campuses, is opening five new locations in the Boston area this month as part of a broader expansion that will also launch hourly rental...

Rental car company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said Thursday that it has completed an acquisition of fleet leasing firm Donlen Corp. Hertz said the purchase was financed with $177 million in cash and the assumption of $770 million of Donlen's fleet debt. Hertz said the acquisition gives it a position in the long-term car, truck and equipment leasing market as well as fleet management, which will give it a more stable revenue stream. Donlen, which is privately held and based in Northbrook, Ill., leases and manages more than 144,000 vehicles in the...

SHANGHAI - Hertz Global Holdings Inc., the largest publicly held US rental-car company, is seeking acquisitions in China to increase its market share in the world's biggest vehicle market. Hertz and General Electric Co. also said today they signed an agreement to cooperate on promoting the use of electric vehicles in China. They will offer companies and government agencies the option to lease both vehicles and charging facilities in China, according to a statement. Hertz expects to triple rental revenue in China to almost $10 million this year, Richard Broome, a spokesman for the Park...

DETROIT -- Warren Avis, a canny entrepreneur who was the first to build a car rental agency around the clientele from airports, died yesterday. He was 92. The founder of Avis Rent A Car and several other businesses died of natural causes at his farm in Ann Arbor, the Avis family said in a statement. A decorated bomber pilot with the Army Air Corps in World War II, Mr. Avis formed his car rental company in 1946 at airports in Miami and Ypsilanti, Mich., with two employees and fewer than 200 cars.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. said Tuesday that it earned money in the second quarter as it rented cars for more days, and the company raised its forecast for 2011 earnings and revenue. Hertz shares had tumbled 95 cents, or 6.8 percent, to close at $12.99 before the results were released. In more than an hour of extended trading, they regained 41 cents, to $13.40. The company raised its 2011 forecast for adjusted earnings — excluding one-time items — to between 91 and 96 cents per share, up from 85 to 90 cents per share.