Despite the rumors of contentiousness surrounding Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corporation and its agitation in Dearborn, Ford reports that a recent talk between Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr., CEO Alan Mulally, and the investment firm were informal and positive. Never a shrinking violet, 91-year-old Kirk Kerkorian has held large stakes of each of the Detroit 3 in the past. Tracinda's most recent foray into Ford's stock coincides with a shift by the Blue Oval away from its historically strong grounding in truck sales. Ford believes that the truck sales balloon has permanently deflated, and is idling plants and shifting production over to more fuel efficient vehicles as crude oil prices continue to ratchet up an economic squeeze.
Ford's already said "forget it" to a planned return to profitability in 2009, and its talks with Tracinda illustrate that Ford realizes it may not have the lock on better ideas. On the agenda at this particular meeting was an analysis of publicaly-announced details of "The Way Forward." Right now both Ford and Tracinda are coming away from the table repeating niceties, but if history is any guide, at some point Captain Kirk might start instigating in ways that are less than popular.
In late April, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian made public his intention to have Tracindo Corp., his investment company, buy up an additional 20 million shares of Ford stock to up his ownership of the Blue Oval from 4.7% to 5.6%. He offered $8.50/share, which at the time was a small premium over Ford's share price of $7.50 and today is a big premium over its current price of $6.16/share. He set a deadline for Ford shareholders to respond to his offer by yesterday at 5 PM, and boy did they. Kirkorian received offers to buy 1 billion shares of Ford, 980,000,000 more than he intends to buy. As such, Tracinda Corp. will easily acquire the additional shares it needs to reach 5.6% ownership of Ford at a price of around $170 million, but hasn't stated that it will buy up anymore of the Dearborn-based automaker. Ford's board of directors has already stated on record that it is neutral and has no opinion about Kirkorian's increase in shares. We wonder if their mood will change when he asks to sit down at the table with them at talk business.
