From the BBC (updated):
MG Rover, the stricken UK car maker, has said it will appoint administrators for the business later on Friday. The announcement came after negotiations with a possible Chinese investor broke down.
MG Rover’s 6,000 workers in the West Midlands are waiting to find out if the iconic firm will continue making cars.
[ Rover to go into administration ] BBC
MF Analysis: It’s amazing to think back at the mid-nineties when the future seemed so bright for BMW’s English aquisitions, Rover and Land Rover. Yet it only took a few years before everyone was referring to both companies as BMW’s English patient. Now with Land Rover costing Ford hundreds of millions a year and Rover almost bankrupt, the success story of the MINI (especially in the US) seems even more dramatic.