Ford to eliminate 72-year-old Mercury brand

Ford Motor Co will eliminate its Mercury brand which has seen sales and investment plunge in recent years, closing out a vehicle lineup created in the 1930s by Edsel Ford, the automaker said on Wednesday.

Ford declined to reveal the cost of eliminating the Mercury brand, but said it expected to shift those resources to expanding its Lincoln luxury brand and did not plan any job cuts. Ford plans to cease Mercury production in the fourth quarter.

Mercury, established to serve as a bridge between the mass-market Ford brand and Lincoln, has seen sales dwindle from a peak in the late 1970s. Its U.S. market share has been falling for several years and is now less than 1 percent.

Auto industry analysts have suggested for years that Ford pull the plug on Mercury, but executives had affirmed plans to continue with the brand as recently as this year.

"From a financial standpoint it was the only decision that Ford Motor Company could make and it is a difficult one," said Bob Tasca, chairman of the Lincoln Mercury dealer council.

The wind-down of Mercury, coupled with Ford's planned sale of its Volvo car unit to China's Geely, reduces Ford to just two brands like Toyota Motor Corp and further distances the automaker from its past multibrand strategy.

Ford said the Mercury decision would not change its forecast to be solidly profitable in 2010. The Ford board of directors approved the Mercury decision on Wednesday.