Kirk Kerkorian boosts his stake in Ford

“He owns it nice and cheap. The word gets out there he’s involved. The first-quarter results were strong, relatively speaking. Even if he walks away somewhere down the road, it would most likely be at a profit,” Tynan said.

Ford’s leaders, in a statement, did not mention Kerkorian or Tracinda by name but said they welcome confidence in the company and in the progress it has made with its restructuring.

“Any investor can purchase Ford shares, which are sold on the open market,” Mulally and Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford said in a joint statement. “The Ford team remains focused on executing our plan to transform Ford into a lean global enterprise delivering profitable growth for all.”

The Ford offer is just the latest effort by Kerkorian to build a significant investment in a U.S.-based automotive company.

A year ago, Tracinda made an unsuccessful $4.5 billion cash offer for Chrysler, and in 2006 it dumped the last block of what once was a nearly 10 percent share of General Motors.

He won a seat on GM’s board for Jerome York, one of his advisers, and pushed for an alliance between GM, Nissan and Renault. GM’s board voted to explore the possibility, but after three months of discussion, the idea was scrapped.

Tracinda also was Chrysler’s largest shareholder at the time of its 1998 merger with DaimlerBenz. He sued the combined company in 2000, claiming Daimler-Benz engineered a takeover of Chrysler, then cheated him out of billions by casting the deal as a merger of equals. A federal judge rejected his claim.

If Kerkorian buys the 20 million additional shares for $8.50, his total per-share cost would be $7.18 including the 100 million shares purchased at $6.91, Tynan said. That would put his investment in Ford at about $861 million.

Tracinda, which is named after Kerkorian’s daughters, Tracy and Linda, has the majority stake in the casino and hotel operator MGM Mirage Inc.

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