Kerkorian sells off another load of Ford shares
Just four months ago, Kirk Kerkorian had a cup out and was asking passers-by for some spare Ford shares. Although he only wanted 20 million of them, he was offered one billion. Turns out those folks trying to get out of the Ford ownership business might have been a bit more prescient than the Tracinda billionaire. After a couple more weeks of watching Ford's share price begin digging toward the center of the earth, Kerkorian seems to want out of Ford himself.A week ago Tracinda shed 7.3 million shares, and now it has unloaded another 26.4 million at an average price of $2.01 per share. That's about $6 less than he paid for them. Kerkorian used a $600 million line of credit from Bank of America to finance the original billion dollar investment in Ford, using shares in his MGM casino for collateral. In addition to the loss on the Ford investment, MGM's stock price hasn't held up either, and that means he's had to commit more of the casino to B of A. Kerkorian's latest divestment takes him under 5% ownership of The Blue Oval, which means he doesn't have to divulge any more share sales, but we have a feeling it won't be the last.
[Source: Bloomberg]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
StarkRavingMad 10:07AM (10/29/2008)
Man the lifeboat. Time to abandon ship!
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Gabagool 10:08AM (10/29/2008)
I wonder how will the Detroit groupies put a positive spin on this one.
"We do not need investors with no stomach"
"More for Us"
"Armenians are not really car people"
"He is too short to reach the third pedal"
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Frank 10:17AM (10/29/2008)
Points and laughs at him -----> HAHA
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Todd 10:25AM (10/29/2008)
The "Big Three" becomes the "Big One"
Then nationalized using a trillion dollars in tax payer money, allowing the Union labor force and fat cat execs to continue to produce product no one wants. Love it!
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Gary 11:20AM (10/29/2008)
Cars that NO ONE wants? I think that's a bit exagerrated. Some people think that the farther a product goes to be delivered to the customer the better it is. Case in point: http://www.fijiwater.com
Jake 10:28AM (10/29/2008)
Oops!
He should have just played black-jack or roulette in one of his casinos instead of this manuever.
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Avinash machado 10:36AM (10/29/2008)
Most people over 90 years of age are long retired. But Kerkorian is still working as any young person would. That alone is a reason to admire and respect him.
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Gabagool 10:44AM (10/29/2008)
I don't think he is 90.
Gabagool 10:44AM (10/29/2008)
I am sorry, he is 91.......................that is impressive.
Level 11:01AM (10/29/2008)
He knows what he is doing....The loss will compensate the gains in tax breaks....I know of couple of investors that need to keep bad performing stock to compensate tax breaks for the good performing stock = less gains to be taxed on once u add in the losses....Smart!
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Gabagool 11:10AM (10/29/2008)
No it's not, it would be smarter to make even more money.
Yes losses do offset gains in taxing terms, but that is not a justification.
People pay way to much attention to taxes.
Level 11:15AM (10/29/2008)
Make a million and take home 600K after taxes and let me see if you are not going to be paying attention to taxes....
koloth44 12:53PM (10/29/2008)
Losses offsetting gains are the silver lining on the dark cloud. It is obviously better to make more, rather than less. Sure, you can make a million and take home 600k, but that beats making 750k and taking home 500k.
You can always pay less taxes by making less or having losses, but anytime you have a cash loss, you are in worse shape than if you didn't!
Paul 11:13AM (10/29/2008)
Since his original purchase was all borrowed $ to begin with I think he's extra skittish. Then when all the credit problems happened he now knows that it take much longer for Ford to return to profitability (if ever) and he just doesn't have the time. Or he's found another company that is better poised to rebound.
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Gstill 12:06PM (10/29/2008)
C'mon, cut him a break, he got excited for the Flex and it isn't selling well. Nobody could've seen that coming. Buy now and dump the stock when the Fiesta comes out.
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big L 12:45PM (10/29/2008)
Oh Cap'n Kirk, say it is not so! It is a F-O-R-D!
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Rick Pate 1:24PM (10/29/2008)
why is Autoblog using a picture of Gandalf for this guy???
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Driver X 1:25PM (10/29/2008)
He's just getting for tax time.
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da wookie 2:55PM (10/29/2008)
Magneto?
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Baron 10:49AM (10/30/2008)
Margin Calls. Quite a few executives are being forced to sell their shares (most at a large loss) to make the margin calls. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margin_call#Margin_call
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