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Matt Miller mentioned this on Bloomberg. The rumor/story now seems to be gaining steam. Since this might affect both F1 and to some degree, the IRL, I wasn't sure where to post this. But with a cloud still over the IRL effort, I guessed that it might affect F1 more.

Also, it's pretty amazing to learn that Lotus sells less than 2000 cars a year globally. James Bond stopped using Lotus as his vehicle of choice to fight villains 30 years ago. Investors say Malaysia’s Proton Holdings Bhd. (PROH) should follow suit in abandoning the sports-car maker.



Proton, the Malaysian maker of sedans and taxis that bought control of Lotus in 1996, hasn’t made any profit from the British unit for 15 years and probably won’t at least until 2014. Now that Proton itself may be divested by its state-run parent, investors such as Gan Eng Peng say Lotus Group International Ltd. is ripe for a sale.

Lotus needs about 2.4 billion ringgit in order to help it return to profit, according to OSK Holdings Bhd. (OSK) estimates. The brand may be worth about 1 billion ringgit, or about triple its current value, once it’s profitable, according to Ahmad Maghfur Usman, an OSK analyst.



For that to happen, Lotus will have to sell 8,000 vehicles a year, he said. The carmaker sold 1,985 units for the year ended March 31, according to its annual report. That compares with Ferrari, whose chairman said in September will probably post record sales of 7,000 cars this year.



Those numbers may be difficult to reach under current ownership.
“Proton is better off without Lotus,” said Alexander Chia, a Kuala Lumpur-based analyst at RHB Capital. “There are no product synergies.”