Ford not in Kerkorian's future

Out with the old, in with the new. With 2008 almost history, Kirk Kerkorian's adventure with Ford is over. A spokeswoman for Tracinda Corp., Kerkorian’s Beverly Hills-based investment company, confirmed today that he had dumped its remaining stock holdings.

Kerkorian owned 107.1 million Ford shares, or 4.9% of the company, in late October, when Tracinda reported in a regulatory filing that it had unloaded 7.3 million shares and planned to sell the rest of its holdings by the end of the year. Kerkorian, who began buying Ford shares in April and spent about $1 billion acquiring a 6.5% stake in the automaker, clearly took a bath on the investment.

Ford was trading at around $7.75 a share when Kerkorian began acquiring his stake. The average price since his last SEC filing in late October: $2.33 a share.

More on his exit from Ford is here at the Money & Co. blog.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Historic Ford products: Click here to see a gallery of the best and worst products from Ford.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Nick Ut