9:10am -- Alan is talking international operations already, talking about Europe and South America rising sales, and how Ford will build on sales momentum overseas this year. 90% sales growth in China and India in 2006. 90%? That is quite a huge deal I would think.

9:11am -- Ford's CFO takes the helm to explain all the financials and the alphabet soup of acronyms. He's giving some details on Ford's worker buyout and the costs incurred in the last quarter.

9:14am -- $2.5 billion in losses from the auto side and a profit of $416 million from financial services. Perhaps automakers should just get into the financial services business, since General Motor's GMAC division is also making huge profits.

9:16am -- an adverse series of events in sales numbers, sales mix and sales incentives are given for Ford's huge losses this past quarter. I can see that -- lower sales and more rebates given to sell the cars and trucks that may not have sold anyway. This is not a happy presentation, folks.

9:20am -- "volume and mix" and total lowered marketshare are again brought up as the reason for Ford's total $2.5 billion in losses for the quarter. Sales volume is down, the mix of cars and trucks customers are looking for was not correct (again) and Ford losing marketshare to competitors are emphasized as cause for the recent-quarter losses.

9:21 -- 70% of the North American product mix will be "refreshed" by 2009 -- that's a pretty decent goal I think. Ford now has 37,700 employees as of the end of the last quarter (salaried). The details of Ford's entire employee base are being discussed, as well as plant closings and facility sales to other parties as Ford exits some cities as an assembly-line employer.

9:25am -- if Ford can match its factory capability and output to projected sales, things will be much better (obviously). The problem is with "projecting sales" -- Ford can't reliably do that without fresh vehicles to compete in the marketplace and an image increase for the U.S. market. There's a tall order, folks.

9:28am -- international results are being given by Ford's CEO with blinding speeds -- the whole results package is available here for all those interested. Ford's operations overseas are in MUCH better shape in terms of sales and growth than here in the U.S.

9:31am -- Ford's credit business earned $1.9 billion for the last fiscal year and was profitable, with receivables of $148 billion at the end of Q4.

9:35am -- 2007 outlook begins -- total sales in the U.S. to be $16.8 billion for 2007. Ford wants to "stabilize" share in the U.S. in 2007 (hint -- not lose share) and grow share internationally.

9:38am -- Ford's CFO turns back control to CEO Alan Mulally, who reiterates Ford's goals for 2007 and starts the audience Q&A with analysts. Here we go...

9:40am -- the first question concerns guidance from 2007 to 2009 in terms of return to profitability and also if President Bush's projected health care changes will affect Ford's strategy going forward. Profitability in the year 2009 is the goal (overall) and the Ford exec staff meets every Thursday to discuss. Ford's CEO is rather stiff and dry here, but does give some details. Alan says that Ford won't be hurt by Bush's health care proposal (duh).

9:46am -- the second question concerns Ford's new liquidity lines and if Ford may "buy out" health care benefits and absolve Ford of that lingering issue. Good question here! The liquidity that Ford has recently racked up will be used for general purposes, but will not be specifically used for health care and pension "buyout" purposes. Second part of the question talks about the health of Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover -- and Alan talks about Ford evaluating all brands across the world, and the only final deal that remains about a "brand" being sold is Aston Martin (which will be divested soon). Alan talks about being very pleased with the progress regarding Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar as well.

9:50am -- the third question talks about where Ford is going to go in order for the automaker to reach profitability by 2008. The analyst claims that the "math doesn't work". Alan goes through the specifics of why it will work -- but it's a "plan" that could change. Plans are not 100% set in stone -- ever -- in the car business.

9:53am -- the fourth question deals with how the UAW union's relationship with Ford is progressing -- Alan sounds like it is an optimistic relationship, but is very vague on any specifics unfortunately.

9:57am -- the fifth question concerns the Super Duty gas and diesel truck launch, which will happen officially in mid-February and marketshare trends for the future. 14%-15% marketshare will be mostly retail across Ford's lineup, and fleet sales for 2007 for the new Super Duty line is exciting for Ford. Second question concerns pension and healthcare expense in 2007 -- they will be the same as in 2006 mostly.

10:01am -- the sixth question concerns labor negotiations and the timing of those negotiations, and the second part concerns costs for commodity parts (which will be flat in 2007 as compared to 2006). In terms of negotiations, Alan says that Ford continues to work with the unions, but the timing comes from the unions -- not Ford. Alan also talks about focusing on the business, not on the labor (which can lead to strikes by workers). Good answer here. Improve the core business, improve the core business. Focusing on other things can lead to the destruction of any company.

10:07am -- the seventh analyst question concerns interest expense projections versus earlier estimates. About $300 million per quarter is the projection and the future track, according to Ford's CFO. The volume/mix question comes next, with 20% being volume and 80% being product mix as the answer (in terms of impacts to Ford's sales). This is a great question -- 80% of Ford's sales results being bad are due to an incorrect mix? This means customers are not wanting Ford's cars and trucks. There is much work to be done in 2007 based on this if you ask me. Alan also takes about more efficient platforms and parts commonalities. Many industries have done this for years (if not decades), so Ford is quite behind here, but Alan is the right guy to get Ford on track on efficiency if you ask me. He's an operational guy, and his responses her exude his confidence in being able.

10:10am -- Ford's CFO corrects the earlier "mix" quote (thank goodness). Ford's sales results for the last quarter were a result of "20% mix, and 80% volume". Whew -- that changes everything from what I wrote above. That was quite a misquote, but at least it was corrected quickly.

10:14am -- questions from the media start coming in, and a question about Ford paying bonuses to executives, and Alan talks about paying competitive compensation -- and that this will be looked at in the current quarter.

10:17am -- some more questions come in from the press about Ford's executive compensation plans amid its disastrous results in recent years. This will be a hot-button issue -- of course -- for Alan's tenure as Ford CEO.

10:23am -- Alan is responding to having brought some execs from Boeing to Ford, and he is defending his position here. He's going into detail on all this.

10:26am -- one of the last questions comes in from the media, and it concerns the $750 million loss last year as Jaguar, and why is Ford dealing with the "thorny" issue of Jaguar. Alan corrects that figure about Jaguar, and says that Ford is committed to Jaguar and Ford is very pleased with Jaguar's performance thus far and that division is very solid at this time. All these numbers and they're all different it seems. Heh. These media folks seems preoccupied with the compensation of Ford execs -- every question has dealt with that directly or indirectly. Hmm.

10:32am -- the call is about to be concluded and Ford's Q4 results are now public. Will Ford have a good 2007 and stay on track to get profitable in the next 24 months? If anyone can pull it off, it's CEO Alan Mulally.

P.S. -- did Ford's "meet or beat" poll from last week give a winner to our reading voters? The "meet" and "beat" voters were split at 34% each -- we have a tie! Both groups of voters have it this time based on Ford's actual Q4 results. Good job, and thanks for reading folks!