Should you advise Rivians board to sell the firm to Ford? Show your calculations, and explain how you arrived at your decision.

Suppose you work for Rivian, an electric truck startup headquartered in Normal, IL. Rivian is trying to decide whether to begin production on its first line of electric trucks in March 2021, or to sell its technology to Ford (close in March 2021). You ask lots of questions of lots of people. You find the following information from the following departments (all numbers are in thousands of dollars): The sales department tells you: Sales price per truck: $40,000 Buyers will be all cash or 3rd party financing (accounts receivable=$0) Model will be obsolete after 2024, and assembly line will require complete retooling. The operations department tells you: Spare machine parts in stock at any one time: $10,000,000 Inventory in process at any time (cars being built): 10% of annual operating costs Cost to produce each truck: $5,000 Production Capacity (# of trucks): 5,000 in 2020; 10,000 in 2021 and 2022 The engineering team tells you: Capital equipment investment for assembly line: $300 million The finance department tells you: Equity Investment from Amazon (2/2019): $700 million Debt from Standard Charter (5/2018): $200 million Interest Rate: 4%, interest only (no principle payments) Source of funding for capex: additional debt funding at same terms Tax credit from Normal, IL for buying old Mitsubishi plant in 2017: $4 million Weight Average cost of Capital: 13% Depreciation Schedule: Straight-line depreciation over 3 years Tax Rate: 30% The investment banking consultants hired by the CFO tell you: Offer from Ford today: $1 billion After-tax value of firm in 2024: $1.4 billion Consulting fee for providing this information: $400,000 Suppose you work for Rivian, an electric truck startup headquartered in Normal, IL. Rivian is trying to decide whether to begin production on its first line of electric trucks in March 2021, or to sell its technology to Ford (close in March 2021). You ask lots of questions of lots of people. You find the following information from the following departments (all numbers are in thousands of dollars): The sales department tells you: Sales price per truck: $40,000 Buyers will be all cash or 3rd party financing (accounts receivable=$0) Model will be obsolete after 2024, and assembly line will require complete retooling. The operations department tells you: Spare machine parts in stock at any one time: $10,000,000 Inventory in process at any time (cars being built): 10% of annual operating costs Cost to produce each truck: $5,000 Production Capacity (# of trucks): 5,000 in 2020; 10,000 in 2021 and 2022 The engineering team tells you: Capital equipment investment for assembly line: $300 million The finance department tells you: Equity Investment from Amazon (2/2019): $700 million Debt from Standard Charter (5/2018): $200 million Interest Rate: 4%, interest only (no principle payments) Source of funding for capex: additional debt funding at same terms Tax credit from Normal, IL for buying old Mitsubishi plant in 2017: $4 million Weight Average cost of Capital: 13% Depreciation Schedule: Straight-line depreciation over 3 years Tax Rate: 30% The investment banking consultants hired by the CFO tell you: Offer from Ford today: $1 billion After-tax value of firm in 2024: $1.4 billion Consulting fee for providing this information: $400,000