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]