British Leyland

British Leyland was a British car company that was the product of a large number of amalgamations (government-sponsored, I believe) in the 1960s.

It's cars were (on the whole) rubbish. For example, the Marina, the Maxi, the Allegro. There were some that were OK eg the Rover SD1.

In 1975 it went bust and had to be bailed out by the government.

Strikes were constant. Well, that's how it seemed. Almost as constant as the losses.

Although, it was the product of many amalgamations it never seemed to be able to realise the intended economies of scale.

In 1988, it was sold to British Aerospace. Apparently, there was some sort of deal. One dreads to think what.

In 1994(?), it was sold to BMW.

In 2000 and something, faced with seemingly insuperable losses BMW bailed out. Rover (as BL was by then known) was saved by the Phoenix consortium.

In 2005, Phoenix went bust and Rover was over.