Out of the Gate: Ford jumps on tender offer result

NEW YORK (AP) _ Shares of Ford Motor Co. jumped at market open after billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. said 37 percent of the automaker's total outstanding stock was tendered in its offer.

Shares rose 18 cents, or 3 percent, to $6.18.

Tracinda spokesman Tom Johnson said the final count of 826 million shares tendered fell short of the 1 billion — or half of the company's outstanding stock — originally pledged in response to the tender offer of $8.50 per share.

Tracinda will buy 20 million shares for about $170 million. The company's May 9 cash tender offer for the shares were priced at a 4 percent premium to Ford's May 8 closing price of $8.20.

Record-high fuel prices and the Dearborn, Mich., company's announcement that it no longer expects to be profitable by 2009 have sent shares lower in recent weeks. The stock is down 29 percent from a May 1 price of $8.48.