This guy had all chance to loose (at leat 80% chances), so why Ford Co. was so worried offering him more and more money. I know that at the end he did won (also he won a case against Chrysler later), but still don´t understand why Ford kept offering more money for his silence.
shareWell I guess, if what was shown was accurate, that to Ford it was worth $250,000 to avoid the possibility, however great it may be... of a much larger damage finding. More importantly I am guessing they were considering the repercussions for brand image if all their customers were opening their newspapers or turning on the TV to hear that they had been found to have stolen someone's idea and made to pay for it.
Later on they offered $1 million, and then finally $30 million (if the movie was accurate) because of that consideration, they knew there was a chance they were going to have to pay something like that anyway, but if he took their offer they avoided the public relations hit of a guilty finding against them, and they retained some control over how much the amount would be... even if it was high, it was on their terms.
I do think the PR aspect was what drove them to make the offer most of all though.