Rental car company Hertz to be bought by three private-equity firms

Hertz, the largest worldwide general used car rental brand, will be sold by Ford Motor company in a deal worth $15 billion in debt and equity. Private-equity firms Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, the Carlyle Group and Merril Lynch Global Private equity are the purchasers-to-be. Ford, with its main carmaking business struggling, would have unloaded only a portion of Hertz shares in an IPO, whereas now Ford can sell all of the rental-car unit to the trio of buyers. J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs were originally slated as underwriters on the IPO.