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 Re: Ford Motor Company - F
Ford announces $129M 3Q loss, burns $7.7B in cash
Ford announces 3Q loss of $129B, burns $7.7B in cash; announces more salaried job cuts
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. says it lost $129 million in the third quarter as the stuggling automaker burned up $7.7 billion in cash.
An unsold 2008 F-150 pickup truck sits under a sign at a Ford dealership in the southeast Denver suburb of Centennial, Colo., on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008. Ford Motor Co. said Monday, its October sales dropped 30 percent as low consumer confidence and tight credit continued to keep buyers out of showrooms. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
An unsold 2008 F-150 pickup truck sits under a sign at a Ford dealership in the southeast Denver suburb of Centennial, Colo., on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008. Ford Motor Co. said Monday, its October sales dropped 30 percent as low consumer confidence and tight credit continued to keep buyers out of showrooms. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
The automaker also said Friday it will cut another 10 percent of its North American salaried work force costs as it tries to weather the worst economic downturn in decades.
Ford says it lost 6 cents per share for the quarter, compared with a loss of $380 million, or 19 cents per share, a year ago.
The company posted a pretax loss of $2.7 billion from continuing operations. But it was offset partly by a $2 billion gain as the company shifted retiree health care liabilities to a trust run by the United Auto Workers.
Sales fell 22 percent to $32.1 billion from $41.1 billion due to lower volume and the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover.
Excluding special items, Ford lost $1.31 per share, worse than Wall Street expected. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters predicted a loss of 94 cents per share on sales of $28 billion.
Dearborn-based Ford reported its worst three-month performance ever in the second quarter, when it lost nearly $8.7 billion.
All my signatures are purely my opinion. Please use your own buy and sell signals and never invest in a stock you can not afford to lose money on. For a complete disclaimer click here
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Re: Ford Motor Company - F
I'm from Detroit and as such have kept a close eye on the domestic autos for many years. GM's CEO Wagoner said that if any of the autos filed bankruptcy, it would be "ball game over" because their surveys indicate that 80% of potential buyers would not buy a car from a bankrupt manufacturer, due to concerns such as ongoing service. Thus, while bankruptcy reorganization can be an answer for some companies and individuals, it's not on the table for the Big 3 unless their plan is to licquidate and go out of business. Thus, they must have the bail out package, and the fed government is not ready for the consequences of not providing it. They are gong to need a lot of money upfront in order to keep operating, or you'll see similar bail out requests in the future in addition to the current one. This is all very hard to watch, particularly as a Detroiter. Can't see these guys as good long prospects at all.
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Re: Ford Motor Company - F
F Ford Motor Company The struggling automaker reported a $3B operating loss in the latest quarter, said it would cut salaried employment costs by 10%, hourly workers with a buyout package, and capital spending, in order to preserve its dwindling cash. 2.00 -0.02 / -0.99%
All my comments are purely my opinion. Please use your own buy and sell signals and never invest in a stock you can not afford to lose money on. For a complete disclaimer click here.
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Re: Ford Motor Company - F
Ford buys shares in Mazda; Ford sells shares in Mazda (yesterday's news).
BMW bought British automaker Rover; BMW sold British automaker Rover.
Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler; Daimler-Benz sold Chrysler.
Ford bought Jaguar; Ford sold Jaguar.
Wake up, people. Hello! Hello! Do you see a pattern here?
WHY WOULD SUPPOSEDLY INTELLIGENT EXECUTIVES MAKE SUCH MAJOR ACQUISITIONS ONLY TO SELL THEM A FEW YEARS LATER?
(Answer: Because they were just following orders)
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Ford execs say company differs from US competition
Ford execs say company differs from US competition
Wednesday December 10, 12:48 am ET
By Kimberly S. Johnson and Tom Krisher, AP Auto Writers
Ford executives say shunning loans makes the company different from Detroit competitors
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- By shunning government loans, Ford Motor Co.'s top executives say they hope to buff up the automaker's image and set it apart from its cash-starved Detroit competitors, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.
GM and Chrysler are in desperate need of government money and may not last until the end of the year without it. But Ford set up $23.5 billion worth of credit back in 2006, and both Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. told The Associated Press Tuesday they are confident that the borrowing, coupled with restructuring and new product plans, will get them through the recession without relying on the government.
Ford even said the century-old company that bears his family's name might be able to use the independence from loans to its advantage.
"I think if they see Ford as a company trying to pull itself up by its own bootstraps, and making it on its own and pulling the right levers, I think that could be a positive for us," Ford said.
Mulally said Ford has completed much of the restructuring that Congress is demanding of the other two, slimming down its brands by selling Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin and studying the sale of Sweden's Volvo.
Ford, he said, has cut its factory capacity to match demand, and it anticipates no further cuts will be necessary as long as the U.S. auto market doesn't worsen considerably. The company has announced the closure of 17 factories and eliminated 50,000 jobs since 2005, many through buyout and early retirement offers.
The interviews came as weary Democratic congressional leaders pushed to clear the final obstacles to a $15 billion bailout of Chrysler and GM Tuesday night, but the rescue plan faced new snags as Republicans raised deep concerns.
Among the requirements in the Democrats' proposed legislation is the appointment of a "car czar" to oversee Chrysler and GM with authority to yank the loans if the companies don't make substantial progress toward restructuring.
Both companies are likely to seek further concessions from the United Auto Workers and their creditors in order to justify the government money and prove themselves viable.
But Mulally said Tuesday he would expect the same concessions from the union even though Ford wouldn't be under government supervision.
"The UAW supports the entire industry. They represent employees at all three companies. I can't imagine being disadvantaged on that," Mulally said. "I would think whatever's done on that we would continue to do together because they support all of us."
Mulally appeared before Congress last week with the CEOs of GM and Chrysler, and said he did so to support the other automakers and to line up government funds just in case the economy worsened and Ford might need government money in the future. If one or both of the others go into bankruptcy, it could drag down parts suppliers and force Ford into the same situation, Mulally said.
He also said that if Ford needed to take the loans and if Congress required him to step down for Ford to get the money, he would comply with the conditions.
But Ford, the executive chairman, said he would be against Mulally leaving, joking that he might rob a bank to keep the executive he hired away from aviation giant Boeing Co. in 2006.
Mulally said that two years ago Ford took its plan -- similar to the one it submitted to Congress last week -- to 40 banks in an effort to get financing to unify its production system and for research and development. It originally estimated a need for $17 billion, but raised additional funds just in case.
"None of us thought it would go as deep as it was going to go and we would have to use it all," Mulally said. "To finance this transformation of Ford on the production system to match demand and get back to profitability, and finance our accelerated product development. That's what led to doing it and doing it at that time."
Ford said the company is trying to take leadership in fuel economy with direct-injection turbocharged engines, new hybrid gas-electric powertrains and eventually electric vehicles. Competitors, including Chrysler, GM, Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., have or are working on, similar technologies.
"Even when we got into tough times, we kept our R&D spending alive, and it was something that I was personally involved in to make sure we spent in the new technologies that will get us to real modernization," he said.
He said it looks like the country is moving toward electric vehicles as the next generation of transportation, and he called on the government to come up with an energy policy to pick one technology and start building the infrastructure to make it work.
"I don't think we'll ever get the infrastructure built that we need if market forces alone are working. I think that our government has to provide some direction," he said.
Ford also said he'd like to see the government keep gas prices stable with taxes or a floor on crude oil prices so automakers can plan their models better.
Gasoline prices peaked at more than $4 per gallon during the summer but now are well below $2 per gallon in many areas of the country.
"We plan our vehicles three, four, five years in advance," he said. "It makes life very difficult if the market gyrates wildly over the course of several months, and that's exactly what we've seen happen."
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Re: Ford execs say company differs from US competition
Auto bailout collapses in Senate
Deal to move forward on $14 billion stopgap measure falls short, possibly dooming GM and Chrysler to bankruptcy.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The future of the U.S. auto industry was in doubt Friday morning after a proposal for $14 billion in federal loans died in a late night Senate vote.
The Senate voted 52-35 to bring the measure for a vote -- short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation. The failure followed the collapse of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans seeking a compromise that both parties, as well as the companies and the United Auto Workers union, could accept.
The dramatic late-night developments could doom General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) to a bankruptcy and closure in the coming weeks, with Chrysler LLC potentially following close behind.
While Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) has more cash on hand to avoid an immediate crisis, its production could be disrupted by problems in the supplier base, as could the production of overseas automakers with U.S. plants such as Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC).
Investors around the world reacted negatively. Stocks closed lower in Japan and Hong Kong and were trading down in Europe. U.S. stock futures were down sharply. General Motors was trading 34% lower and Ford 11% in premarket trading. Chrysler is privately held.
GM and Chrysler said in statements that they were disappointed but did not reveal their next moves.
"We will assess all of our options to continue our restructuring and to obtain the means to weather the current economic crisis," according to the GM statement.
GM has continually said it could not continue to operate if it is forced to file for bankruptcy. In response to reports that the company has hired a prominent bankruptcy attorney, GM said its board "is meeting frequently and monitoring the situation very closely and is committed to considering all options -- as is management -- and has engaged appropriate advisors for all contingencies."
However, the Big Three could still wind up getting government funding. Bush officials warned wavering GOP senators earlier Thursday that if they didn't support the legislation, the White House will likely be forced to tap funds from the Wall Street bailout to lend them money, two Republican congressional officials told CNN.
The White House has been strongly opposed to using any of the $700 billion in bank bailout funds to help the auto industry, but the Bush administration has also said the Big Three must get some financial assistance soon.
"It's disappointing that Congress failed to act last night," said White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto. "We will evaluate our options in light of the breakdown in Congress."
The measure the Senate turned back would have provided $14 billion in federal loans as a stopgap measure until the new Congress and the incoming Obama administration could reach a longer-term solution.
While the package was far less than the $34 billion requested by the automakers earlier this month, it would have seen them through their current cash crisis.
GM has said it needs $4 billion by the end of the month or its cash reserves will fall below the level it needs to continue operations. It needs another $6 billion in the first two months of 2009, according to its request to Congress. Chrysler had said its cash would run out early next year and it would need $4 billion in the first quarter to continue operations.
Hopes for compromise quickly faded
Earlier in the evening, it appeared that the two sides were getting close to an agreement on the bailout. But just after 10 p.m., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced a failure to reach an agreement and that he would call for a procedural vote to test support for the measure.
"We have worked and worked and we can spend all night tonight, tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday, and we're not going to get to the finish line," Reid said on the Senate floor before the vote. "That's just the way it is. There's too much difference between the two sides."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the sticking point was the United Auto Workers union's refusal to put employees at U.S. auto manufacturers at "parity pay" with U.S. employees at nonunion plants operated by foreign automakers in the United States.
Negotiations centered around proposals from Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., that would have set dates in 2009 by which the automakers receiving the loans had to reach cost cutting agreements with unions and creditors or be forced into bankruptcy. Corker said the two sides were very close to a deal and stumbled on the deadline for the union to agree to the reduced pay.
"We are about three words away from a deal," Corker said.
Currently, analysts estimate the union workers at U.S. automakers make about $3 to $4 per hour more than the non-union U.S. employees of foreign automakers like Toyota and Honda, according to the Center for Automotive Research.
The benefit costs are significantly greater for U.S. automakers, though, because they have to pay health care costs for hundreds of thousands of retirees. The union agreed to close much of that gap in the 2007 labor agreements by shifting responsibility for retiree health care to union-controlled trust funds. But those changes won't take effect until 2010.
The House easily passed the bailout bill Wednesday night but it quickly ran into trouble in the Senate, where Republicans objected to several provisions.
All my comments are purely my opinion. Please use your own buy and sell signals and never invest in a stock you can not afford to lose money on. For a complete disclaimer click here.
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Re: Ford execs say company differs from US competition
F Ford Motor Company The nation’s second largest automaker has more cash on hand to avoid an immediate crisis, but its production could be disrupted by problems in the supplier base stemming from a GM bankruptcy filing. 2.73 -0.17 / -5.86%
All my comments are purely my opinion. Please use your own buy and sell signals and never invest in a stock you can not afford to lose money on. For a complete disclaimer click here.
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Re: Ford Motor Company - F
Might be worth a watch at 1.70 to 1.80 ranges here if we can continue to hold that support levels.
 Originally Posted by Stock_Analyzer
All my signatures are purely my opinion. Please use your own buy and sell signals and never invest in a stock you can not afford to lose money on. For a complete disclaimer click here
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Re: Ford Motor Company - F
Does anyone think Ford will go out of business?
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