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Matsos bottling a dressing that’s selling in 25 states
Economic survey: Job losses to bottom out in first quarter
Ohio gas up 12 cents from last week
SCORE offers wide variety of workshops
After 30 years at the helm of Akron Children's, Considine still looks to future
New version of Mozilla Thunderbird landing soon
Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Does it work? Test team returns to try out new products advertised on television
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Sunday Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns sick after sick loss in Detroit
Akron Zips:
Zips advance to Sweet Sixteen
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Post-game defensive quotes
Kent State Sports:
Kent State defeats Rochester College, 63-44
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Sunday Sanity Challenge
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Faye Dunaway to be Evicted?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Personal Rant – You are All Wrong About Jobs, or the Lack of Jobs, Being the Reason People Do Not Live in NEO
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Move to alter control slowed by stock's rise
By Bill Koenig
Bloomberg News
Published on Thursday, May 08, 2008
Ford Motor Co.'s stock price rally, apparently spurred by Chief Executive Alan Mulally's recovery plan, could quiet critics demanding the founding family relinquish control of the second-largest U.S. automaker.
Shareholders at today's annual meeting in Wilmington, Del., will vote for the fourth consecutive year on a proposal to end a dual-class stock structure that gives the Ford family 40 percent voting rights through its 3.2 percent ownership. The proposal drew 27 percent of shareholder votes in 2007, the most ever, after the company posted a record $12.6 billion loss for 2006.
Its author, activist investor John Chevedden, estimates 45 percent of non-family investors voted in support.
What's different this year is that Ford stock is up more than 20 percent as investors, including billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, demonstrate confidence in Mulally, chosen by chairman and former Chief Executive William Clay Ford Jr. to run the company in September 2006.
''People will cut the company some slack,'' said James O'Shaughnessy Chief Executive of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC in Stamford, Conn. ''The odds are in favor of it coming back.'' His firm manages $9.5 billion in assets, including 1.4 million Ford shares.
Kerkorian's disclosure last week that he bought a 4.7 percent stake in Ford came after a March 31 regulatory filing showing that Dodge & Cox Inc., a San Francisco-based fund manager, acquired 4.9 percent, and a Dec. 31 disclosure that Boston-based Putnam Investments LLC almost doubled its holdings to a 1.2 percent stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.
''No one knows for sure, but we think there is very serious money to be made here,'' Jerome York, a Kerkorian adviser, said in a Bloomberg Television interview April 28. ''In the last couple of quarters but particularly the first quarter of this year, they really started moving the needle on results.
''It's pretty obvious, I think, he's a tremendous leader,'' York said of Mulally. In a separate interview with the New York Times published April 29, York said Ford ''has the best poison pill in the world against a hostile shareholder, and it's called 40 percent voting rights by the Ford family.''
York's backing hasn't deterred Chevedden, the 62-year-old shareholder.
''I would hope institutions are more savvy and give their support,'' he said. ''Kirk Kerkorian's hand would be stronger if Ford adopted this proposal.''
Dodge & Cox doesn't discuss individual holdings, spokesman Steve Gorski said in an interview. Neither does Putnam, spokeswoman Nancy Fisher said in an e-mail.
Mulally has cut 46,300 jobs at Ford's North American operations, the primary source of the company's losses. He has closed, or scheduled to close, nine plants, with one shut facility set to reopen.
Mulally is matching Ford's manufacturing capacity to its reduced share of the U.S. auto market.
The company had 16.2 percent of the U.S. market the first four months of this year, down from 25.7 percent in 1995, the last year it gained market share.
Ford Motor Co.'s stock price rally, apparently spurred by Chief Executive Alan Mulally's recovery plan, could quiet critics demanding the founding family relinquish control of the second-largest U.S. automaker.
Get the full article here.
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