Kerkorian's Ford Offer Draws 50% of All Stock
What if you threw a party for 20 million guests and over a billion said sure, they'd love to go! The AP [via Yahoo!] reports on Tracinda's offer to buy Ford Motor Company common stock for $8/share. Roughly half of the outstanding shares were tendered against the offer. The response reflects the pervasive pessimistic view of FoMoCo future; offer stockholders a little over the present trading price and they are so out-a-here. Maybe Kirk has a dastardly plan to buy up 10k Ford Explorers for $15m (fleet pricing), sell 'em to friends in Saudi Arabia, drive up the price of Ford stock, then dump his stock at a profit. Far fetched for sure. But what other explanation can we devise for Kirk Kerkorian's hots for Ford stock? Unless, of course, you have plans to seize control of the company.
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It has to be his ego. He has more money than he will ever need. for some perverse reason this guy wants to run an auto company. he has tried to control all three in US. (he must be crazy)
Greed runs this country... While those few reject..many more will go for it! Ford was our last hope........
Don't know for sure, but my guess is that Buffet does buy only solvent companies. I'm reading "The Intelligent Investor" by Graham with the preface and an appendix by Buffett. Just got into it, but it looks like the advice is going to be buy solid companies and avoid going for home runs. I don't know what drives him (Kerkorian). Maybe ego or maybe just enjoys playing the game. As long as these people don't destroy a company and all the lives involved, they might serve a positive purpose. For some reason Icahn bugs me more than Kerkorian. Can't stand Icahn.
Yup, Buffett only buys solvent companies. He runs the numbers of every publicly traded company constantly until he finds one who's stock is undervalued, swoops in, and buys the whole thing. He always leaves existing management in place, because one of the reasons he bought the company in the first place was that he thought they were doing a good job, just that they weren't being respected for it on Wall Street. This also explains why the companies Buffett owns are some of the most boring companies on the planet (Fruit of the Loom, Buster Brown Shoes, etc.) because it's more likely that companies that aren't "flashy" are going to be undervalued. Buffett is a completely different type of investor than Kerkorian. Buffett buys and holds. He perfers to do nothing than to screw up. Kerkorian is in it for the thrill of the chase. For instance, Kerkorian bought and sold the MGM movie studio three times.