Exhaust Note #9: Kerkorian is Back
Tracinda Corporation Buying Into Ford Motor Company
Kirk Kerkorian, the incredibly wealthy 90-year-old investor and businessman, has long been well known among auto-industry watchers. He was first involved with Chrysler, back in the days when Lee Iacocca was turning things around. Later, his takeover attempt also sparked the notion of merging the company with another, which ultimately led to the creation of DaimlerChrysler. There are few today, other some who retired well off the deal, who would say that was a merger that was beneficial for either company, equals or not.
After eventually getting out of the Chrysler business, Tracinda bought enough of General Motors to get a seat on the board. Company man Jerry York held that seat and pushed for a GM-Renault-Nissan tie-up. Bound by duty to stockholders to explore the option instead of dismissing it outright, Rick Wagoner and GM staff worked with Renault-Nissan for a few months to prove what we all seemed to know in the first place: A Renault-GM tie-up didn't make much sense. Kerkorian's Tracinda sold off its GM stake and went home. The end of that story, right?

Well, yes and no. Whether by the "third time's a charm" or "try, try again" schools of thought, Tracinda has been accumulating shares of Ford Motor Company since April 2, 2008, and offered today to buy more. And by more we mean enough to give Tracinda 5.6% of FoMoCo. But what does Tracinda really want? Does the company want take over a Detroit car company, no matter which? It does seem that Kerkorian is obsessed with making a major, direct impact on the automotive industry. His efforts so far have succeeded in shaking things up, often when it can be most disruptive, but not in improving the business overall.
Continue reading "Exhaust Note #9: Kerkorian is Back" »

































