Volvo

The Volvo Group is a Swedish supplier of commercial vehicles such as trucks, buses and construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications, aerospace components and financial services. The then auto manufacturer was founded on April 14, 1927 in the city of Gothenburg, as a spin-off from the roller ball bearing maker SKF. Volvo delisted from NASDAQ in June, 2007, but remains listed on the Stockholm exchange.[1]

Volvo means "I roll" in Latin (or "I drive" in modern-day English, appropriate for cars as well as bearings), conjugated from "volvere" (cp the ball bearing producer SKF). The name Volvo was originally registered in May 1911 as a separate company within SKF AB and as a registered trademark with the intention to be used for a special series of ball bearing, but this idea was only used for a short period of time and SKF decided to use "SKF" as the trademark for all its bearing products.

The company AB Volvo had no activities until 10 August, 1926 when the SKF Sales Manager Assar Gabrielsson and Engineer Gustav Larson, after one year of preparations involving the production of ten prototypes, set up the car-manufacturing business Volvo AB within SKF group. Volvo AB was introduced at the Stockholm stock exchange in 1935 and SKF then decided to sell its shares in the company.

The first series produced Volvo automobile, the Volvo ÖV 4, left the factory on 14 April, 1927 which became the official date for the founding of Volvo.

In 1999 Volvo sold its car division to Ford. Repeated reports in the media about Ford selling off its Volvo brand have been refuted by the company