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Tracinda
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question of the day
Kirk Kerkorian: Mad Money Or Just Mad?
We got a call early this morning with someone telling us that Kirk Kerkorian and Tracinda had just moved to buy more of FoMoCo. Having endured a late night, we promptly fell back asleep. Upon waking up we had to run to the computer to double check that wasn't some sort of weird dream (like the one where Bob Lutz hunts us with a crossbow). Turns out it wasn't. When it is all over, Tracinda will own 120 million shares of Ford common stock. KirkKerk is putting up a price of $8.50, or 13.3% over Friday's closing price of $7.50. As we've mentioned, Tracinda has sort of a weird history with US automakers. More »
news
Tracinda To Expand Stake In Ford, Buy 20 Million More Shares
Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp is planning to add 20 million shares to its current pile of 100 million Ford Motor Company shares and is willing to pay $8.50 per share to do it. Trancinda made the announcement this morning to which Ford has responded with a "thanks for the vote of confidence" style statement. Seems KirkKerk is going for an automaker trifecta after past activities like buying a major portion of GM (then selling it), trying to buy all of Chrysler (and losing), and now getting into the 5.5% ownership range of Ford. Apparently falling market share but improving profit trends creates a mixed message that Tracinda is willing to stake a little coin on this quarter. [Reuters]
industry news
Was It Savvy Or Stupid For Chrysler To Close Its Cali Design Studio?
Beware the Ides of March. By now, Chrysler's Pacifica Design Center in Carlsbad, CA should be a warren of ghost-cubicles, with perhaps a few shreds of jettisoned sketches for futurecars scattered on the industrial carpeting, reduced to janitorial found art. The Pentastar has shut it down and concentrated "blue sky" conceptualizing under the gray skies of Detroit. The studio, which focused on advanced design, had been part of Chrysler's master plan since the early 1980s, according to various published news reports. It was the first California facility opened by a U.S. automaker. And, in a twist of fate, the first to bite the dust. More »
12:30 PM on Tue Mar 18 2008
By Matthew DeBord
1,441 views,
59 comments
Latest by my favorite car is a motorcycle: @Triborough: Exactly! Except dramatically improve the reliability, delete the chrome & wood, and don't outsource the interior to Fisher Price. Gotta laugh that the old Eagle outshines all the modern Cerberus AWD wagons & cute utes. more »
commentary
Autoextremist: KirkKerks Don't Change Their Spots
Sweet Peet weighs in on Kerkorian's overture to the union in his attempt to buy out Chrysler and ends up making a very salient point:"Kerkorian is a hustler with a capital 'H' and that's about as far as his interest in the well-being of a reconstructed Chrysler Group goes. He and York are in it for the short-term play, and your first clue should have been the words, 'Long term, patient investing has been Tracinda's approach...'"And at 89 years old, will Kerkorian live long enough to even see out a seven-year plan for the beleagured DCX unit's turnaround? More »
news
Chrysler Group Sales Speculation -- Taken For A Ride II: Judgement Day
Everyone knows who Bill Vlasic is right? He's the Detroit News reporter who co-wrote the definitive account of the how Chrysler and Mercedes became the stilted and fubar married couple they are today. Vlasic and co-author Bradley A. Stertz's "Taken For A Ride" starts with an attempted takeover by a certain peppermint patty-flavored corporate raider...by the name of Kirk Kerkorian. So it's quite interesting for us that with Walter P. Chrysler's name-sake getting taken for a second ride in the past ten years, and with KirkKerk and Jerry York's Tracinda Corp. taking another shot at the company this afternoon, we would have received the following e-mail forwarded to us. It's from Kim Cowser at Harper-Collins soliciting Vlasic as the definitive speaker on the subject of the German-American hybrid. We wonder if he's getting any calls today. Full text of the e-mail after the jump. More »
news
General Motors Provides "No Comment" On Chrysler Acquisition Rumors
We decided to call one of GM's masters of PR to ask about these rumors of a General Motors / Chrysler combination, but instead of providing a strong denial to the rumors begun early this morning, our sources at the General are doing nothing but claim "no comment." Not a "that's utterly preposterous" or even a "that's absurd" (although we did get a "I wonder where they're getting that?") Nope — nothing other than "no comment." Despite what we've now heard that talks center around requiring the Chrysler Group to find a way to cut employee health care costs out of any potential deal. So does this mean a prolonged negotiation with the UAW on self-health-management? Perhaps. We'll see what happens, but at this point we've got no denial from GM on the rumors and no paper issued. But if it ends up not being GM talking about an acquisition deal, then whom? Chery? Tracinda? What do you think? More »
news
Breaking! Kerkorian Goes On A Selling Spree, Cuts Stake In GM Stock By Half
Looks like KirkKerk wants very little to do with the world's largest automaker — the corporate raider's company, Tracinda, is cutting it's shares again — and this time it's in half. Kerkorain's cutting his stake down to a paltry 4.95%, or 28 million shares — a level that will ensure he won't be able to do much more than raise his hand come time for the annual shareholder meeting. And I think that noise I can hear right now in the distance is the General's General — Rick Wagoner — giggling from atop the RenCen. More »
news
Kerkorian Knows "Step 2"...For Tracinda!
It's always nice to be able to get your company and its investments in the black. Billionaire investor, financier and top GM shareholder, Kirk Kerkorian certainly knows how to make a profit (the key being, of course, a necessary understanding of Step 2) — at least for Tracinda Corporation, his
