Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) has been looking to sell its beleaguered Volvo unit since last December and reportedly hopes to narrow the field of bidders this month.

One of the leading contenders is the Crown group, which is led by former Ford director Michael Dingman and former Ford labor executive Shamel Rushwin. Crown entered the talks about two months ago, and it hopes to attract former Volvo executives such as one-time CEO Roger Holtback as equity partners.

Ford (NYSE: F) may finally have some good news for investors. So far this year, all the company has been able to say is that it will probably not need government funds to stay afloat but that the US car market faces another big drop in vehicle sales. That has pushed Ford's stock down to $2.

Ford has been talking about dumping businesses to raise money. One of these units is Volvo. Most analysts assumed that there would be no buyers. Credit to finance such a deal would be too hard to come by.

Ford (NYSE: F) obviously needs to raise money. Even the company admits that it will run low on cash later next year. A bailout from Washington may help that, but no one knows if the funding from Congress will be adequate to offset losses.

So, Ford is considering selling its Volvo unit to its Chinese partner Changan Automobile. According to Reuters, "Changan president Xu Liuping held discussions with Ford and Volvo during last month's auto show in the Chinese city of Guangzhou."

If a deal is pending it says much about the future of the U.S. car companies and their relationships overseas. China's car market growth has slowed somewhat, but it is still the most promising nation in the world for finding increased sales. By selling Volvo, Ford would give up the chance of making money on the brand in China in exchange for what is likely to be $1 billion or $2 billion based on what Rover and Jaguar sold for.

It is also surprising that the Swedish government would not want to aggressively support local interests in buying Volvo -- a flagship of the country's industry.

But panic makes strange bedfellows.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Just in case the US Congress will not bailout Ford (NYSE:F) and GM (NYSE: GM), the car companies are turning to the Swedish government to help their Volvo and Saab units. The government there does not want to see a lot of lost jobs, so it might just put up some money to help out the US firms.

According to the FT, "Stephen Odell, Volvo's chief executive, and Saab's managing director Jan-Ake Jonsson have separately spoken to Maud Olofsson, Sweden's industry minister, and other officials about securing funds." The American firms have decided to sell the businesses, so Sweden may need to keep them on life support until that happens.

The move shows how desperate the US car companies are. While they may not be able to get the US government to provide them aid, they can appeal to Sweden on the basis that Saab and Volvo are huge employers in the country. Real trouble for the division could raise unemployment in the Scandinavian country causing it to pour unemployment and other social services capital into its economy,

Americans begging in Sweden. Nice picture.

Douglas A. McIntyre is en editor at 247wallst.com.

Ford (NYSE: F) does not have much too much left to sell now that Jaguar and Range Rover are gone. Selling the Lincoln division might be a good idea. Nice luxury brand. But, it shares too many engines and parts with Ford brands.

All Ford has left that could be pushed out the door for cash is Volvo. Ford has said it will never sell the division, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Word comes today from The Times, that Volvo may go to BMW to help the Ford balance sheet. The paper reports that "Ford may sell Volvo, the Swedish car-maker, to BMW as part of a drive to raise cash, say senior car-industry sources."

Ford might get over $2 billion for Volvo, which is about what it got for Jaguar and Range Rover. But, that amount would probably cover less that four month's cash burn.

The fact of the matter is that if Ford cannot get direct aid from the government in the next quarter, the entire company will have to be sold off in parts or in whole. The only two companies large enough to make a transaction of that size are Toyota (NYSE: TM) and Volkswagen. Toyota may not want to risk the U.S. government challenging it having 30% of the American car market if it made the acquisition.

No doubt Volvo ends up at VW.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is cutting production at its Volvo unit, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move, which could affect one-third of workers -- some 700 -- is seen as an attempt to cut the costs and losses at the upscale Swedish brand.

The question everyone is asking is whether this move is done in preparation for a sale. According to "people familiar with the matter" who discussed such things with the Journal, CEO Alan Mulally is interested in putting Volvo, whose sales have been declining, on the block. Of course, to analysts, Mulally sang a different tune last month, saying the priority is improve the Swedish auto maker operations "dramatically."

As Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. continues to build its stake int he company, he may also have a thing or two to say on the matter.

For now, Volvo is cutting where it makes larger, less popular vehicles, and it plans to make fewer cars overall. But can this make Volvo more profitable for Ford, or at least more attractive to buyers? There are costs associated with producing a smaller number of vehicles, but with Volvo reporting 22,000 fewer vehicles sold during the first quarter, cutting production makes sense. Another matter Ford has to consider is the massive losses it suffered lately just from the kronor-dollar exchange rate.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal reported that Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) CEO Alan Mulally isn't done cost-cutting. According to people close to the situation, Mulally is considering more job cuts, selling its Volvo brand and closing the troubled Mercury brand.
• BHP Billiton Limited (NYSE: BHP) CEO Marius Kloppers strongly criticized Rio Tinto Plc (NYSE: RTP) and its CEO yesterday, the Financial Times reported. BHP Billiton has outperformed Rio Tinto in several areas, including share price appreciation and EPS growth, said Kloppers, adding, "On every metric I can envisage they [Rio] have been beaten."

• According to the Economic Times, AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) is reportedly in preliminary talks with Malaysia's Maxis Communications about buying its 74% stake in Indian cellular phone company Aircel, sources said.
• The United Auto Workers union has rejected several "generous" benefit and wage proposals, according to American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc (NYSE: AXL). In a statement yesterday, the Detroit News reported that American Axle said while tentative agreements had been reached on several issues, the UAW "repeatedly rejected" other proposals that were "considerably higher than the market rate."

The Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) recently announced that it has decided to keep Volvo, despite Ford's current plan to focus on its core American brands. Ford's other two foreign brands, Land Rover and Jaguar, will be sold and should be out of Ford's hands by early 2008.

An analyst quoted in The New York Times stated that Ford's plan to keep Volvo was not a positive development. Brian Johnson, of Lehman Brothers, speculated that Ford was unable to find a buyer for Volvo, or at least one who would pay a good price. Ford has owned Volvo for eight years, paying $6.45 billion for it in 1999. Although Ford does not provide detailed financial reports for Volvo, it did state that Volvo lost money in the last quarter.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Mattel Inc (NYSE: MAT) to Buy from Neutral citing valuation, strong 2008 product line-up, and expected organic sales growth.
  
• Goldman upgraded shares of Volvo (NASDAQ: VOLV) to Buy from Neutral on valuation as they believe the company's prospects for earnings are not priced into shares. Volvo was added to the firm's Conviction Buy List.
  
• PMI Group's (NYSE: PMI) rating was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Piper Jaffray on valuation.
  
• Citigroup upgraded shares of Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS) to Hold from Sell to reflect their increased commodity price forecasts.
  
• Diamond Foods Inc (NASDAQ: DMND) was upgraded to Buy from hold at BB&T Capital on valuation.

• Bear Stearns upgraded Diana Shipping Inc (NYSE: DSX) to Outperform from Peer Perform.
  
• Morgan Stanley upgraded Telephone and Data Systems Inc (NYSE: TDS) to Equal Weight from Underweight.
  
• Targa Resources Partners (NASDAQ: NGLS) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.
  
• Steelcase Inc (NYSE: SCS) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman.

Here is some background for Brian White's liveblogging of Ford's (NYSE: F) second quarter earning results:

Ford surprised the market by announcing black ink for the second quarter of 2007, with net income of $750 million, or $0.31 EPS on $44 billion revenue, which was a 6% increase over 2006 2nd quarter.

Unfortunately the increase in revenue was primarily due to currency exchange, mix and net pricing improvements -- sales volume actually was lower than 2006. The profit was due in part to cost reductions of $600 million, including the elimination of 6,400 jobs.

Backing out special items, mostly the sale of Aston Martin and deferred gains on certain hedges at Jaguar and Land Rover, and profits finished at $258 million, or $0.13 EPS. The paltry earnings won't do much to excite a market convinced that the company has taken only the first few initial steps in their climb back to economic viability.