
Let us recall, if you will, the affair of Rivian. A young, ambitious enterprise, brimming with the naive optimism that only a lack of practical experience can provide. Ford, in a moment of either strategic brilliance or profound delusion (history, I suspect, will lean towards the latter), invested, envisioning a harmonious collaboration. A shared platform, they declared. A synergy of innovation. It sounded…optimistic, didn’t it? Like a socialist utopia conceived in the boardroom. But, alas, the dream dissolved, as such things invariably do. Each automaker retreated to its own corner, and Ford, upon divesting its stake in Rivian, experienced a rather…substantial influx of capital. This windfall, naturally, found its way to the shareholders, manifesting as a special dividend of $0.65 per share, a delightful surprise atop the usual $0.15. It was, for a fleeting moment, as if the market itself had smiled.