Hertz: The JFK Clock, a Bankrupt Meme Stock and the False Arrest Payout

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Hertz began in Chicago in 1918, when 22-year-old Walter L. Jacobs rented out a dozen Ford Model Ts. John D. Hertz, a salesman stuck with traded-in cars at a dealership, painted them yellow as a taxi fleet and bought Jacobs' business in 1923. General Motors bought the brand in 1927, and Hertz introduced a rental charge card in 1926, a Chicago Midway Airport location in 1932 and the first one-way rental plan in 1933. John Hertz bought it back in 1953 and took it public, then it passed to RCA in 1967, to United Airlines parent UAL in 1985 and to Ford for about $1.3 billion two years later.

Hertz financed its fleet with asset-backed securities secured by the cars, so when travel stopped and used car prices fell in April 2020, lenders demanded cash it did not have. It filed for Chapter 11 in May 2020, and Carl Icahn took a loss of roughly $2.3 billion. Retail traders then pushed the bankrupt stock from 59 cents to $5.50, and Hertz sold $29 million of a planned $1 billion share offering before the SEC stepped in. After emerging in July 2021, it ordered 100,000 Teslas, then began selling off a third of its EV fleet in early 2024 as Tesla price cuts and repair costs hit resale values; CEO Stephen Scherr stepped down in March 2024.

• A Hertz time-and-temperature sign on the Texas School Book Depository roof, installed in 1959, helped witnesses time the 1963 Kennedy assassination.
• In 1966 Hertz rented 1,000 Shelby GT350H Mustangs through its Rent-A-Racer program.
• O.J. Simpson ran through airports in Hertz ads in the 1970s alongside Arnold Palmer and Jamie Lee Curtis.
• A grass fire sparked by one car's exhaust destroyed 1,200 parked Hertz vehicles in southwest Florida.
• A sync failure between branch and corporate systems led to false theft reports, and in December 2022 Hertz agreed to pay about $168 million to settle 364 claims.