Back in October I wrote that super investor Kirk Kerkorian has slashed his stake in Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) by a few million shares but in a press release, Kerkorian's Tracinda was careful to note that "in light of current economic and market conditions, it sees unique value in the gaming and hospitality and oil and gas industries and has, therefore, decided to reallocate its resources and to focus on those industries."

Apparently the reallocation continued: Reuters is reporting that Mr. Kerkorian has now eliminated entirely his stake in the beleaguered auto company. It's not yet known when or how he disposed of the stake but it's been a costly foray for Mr. Kerkorian. Tracinda had previously disclosed that it had hired an investment bank to look for a buyer for its stake in Ford.

Last week on BloggingStocks, Brent Archer named him one of our money losers of 2008 for his losses in Ford and MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM).

The week between Christmas and New Year's is supposed to be slow. No one expected a little war in the Middle East, which pushed oil prices up, at least for a couple of days. Toward the end of trading, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's holding company said it had sold of its Ford (NYSE: F) shares, and that pushed the stock down 5%.

The day opened with the market reacting to Kuwait pulling out on its $17 billion joint venture with Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW). The news hammered DOW down 20%.

The market was down most of the day but moved toward even at the close. The primary concern of traders still seems to be the poor retail sales from the holidays and whether consumer spending will stay weak well into next year. Certainly nothing happened to make traders glad they came back after a weekend off.

Today's unofficial closing numbers:

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

This post is part of our feature on Money Losers of 2008. See all 20.

Our series of Money Losers for 2008 has its share of millionaires and billionaires on it. Personally, I think that is just wrong. While these people may have lost billions of dollars this past year, it doesn't seem fair to call them money losers. They will certainly survive this troubled time and still have their house, their cars, and (at least some of) their fortune. However, on the flip side, no one would read an article about Frank the farmer from Iowa who lost 50% of his life savings.

Kirk Kerkorian made his fortune by developing real estate and hotels in Las Vegas and by buying and selling movie studio MGM three times over. According to the Forbes 2008 list, he is the world's 41st-richest person with a net worth of $16.0 billion.

This year has seen some bumps in the road for Mr. Kerkorian. His private investment corporation Tracinda owns about 55% of MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) and made a very prominent bad call on Ford (NYSE: F) earlier this year.

MGM peaked around October of last year with a stock price upwards of $95. At that time, Tracinda's 55% state would have been worth about $14.5 billion. However, with today's share price of just $13.50, that chunk of MGM is "only" $1.5 billion. Of course these are only paper gains and paper losses at this point, but it still stings a little bit to look at the bottom line.

As we begin the trek to grandmother's house, it's worth reflecting on what we have to be thankful for. The answer? When it comes to money, most of us have a lot less than we did a year ago. But for those of you who have your health and your families to comfort you, it will cost much less to buy the gasoline to visit than it would have in July. And as you're driving to visit those families -- consider how much less you lost in the last year than the world's 10 biggest losers.

According to the web site, The Business Sheet, those unfortunate people suffered a mind-boggling $176 billion in lost stock market value in the last 12 months. It turns out that 52% of the losses were suffered by three executives based in India. Here they are:

• Anil Ambani - $32.5 billion. Ambani heads Reliance Communications that invested $500 million in Dreamworks earlier this year.
• Lakshmi Mittal - $30.5 billion. Mittal heads ArcelorMittal which has suffered from a decline in the price of steel.
• Mukesh Ambani -$28.2 billion is Anil's brother and controls Reliance Industries, a petrochemical manufacturer.

These are some other folks that make The Business Sheet's list:

• Sheldon Adelson -$30 billion. I did consulting work for Adelson about 22 years ago and he is quite a character. His Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) casino is suffering from the economic slowdown and he's had some trouble with debt.
• Warren Buffett -$13.6 billion. As I posted, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) has had some problems this year.

As expected, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) posted dreadful results. But the numbers were even more awful than Wall Street feared, sending shares of the company plunging in premarket action.

The number three automaker -- at least for now --- posted a net loss of $8.7 billion, or $3.88 a share, for the second quarter including a $5.3 billion write down of its North American auto business and another $2.1 billion charge. A year earlier, Ford had a net profit of $750 million, or 31 cents per share. Revenue excluding special items fell to $38.6 billion compared with $44.2 billion during the year earlier period.

Excluding one-time expenses, the loss was $1.38 billion, or 62 cents. On that basis, analysts had expected a loss of 27 cents on revenue of $34.6 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

What does Kirk Kerkorian know that others on Wall Street don't know?

That was one analyst's meditation after the billionaire investor's Tracinda Corp. indicated in an SEC filing that it has increased its stake in Ford(NYSE:F) by about 20 million shares to a 6.49% stake from 5.5%, The Associated Press reported Thursday. Tracinda now owns 140.8 million shares of Ford.

Ford's shares were virtually unchanged on the news, gaining 5 cents to $6.27 in Thursday morning trading.

Kerkorian now owns 140.8 million shares in the U.S. automaker, and stock analyst C. Leonard Bauer said Kerkorian is either venturing forth where no seasoned investor would go, or is on to something.

A high-risk investment

"On its face, this is a high-risk stake, a calculation that could hurt dearly. There's not a lot running in Ford's favor right now, from an operational standpoint," Bauer said. "Ford wants us to believe their transformation is progressing reasonably well, but it isn't. I've seen little in Ford's fleet or prototypes that suggest a whole new generation of young adults will suddenly run out and buy Fords, and they are still behind-the-curve on efficiency, styling, innovation, and must-have vehicles." Bauer added that he does not have a rating on nor own shares in Ford.

Kirk Kerkorian, who always has a tan and is a billionaire to boot, will end up with 5.5% of Ford (NYSE: F) when his current tender offer is done. If things don't get better at the car company, he may use that big chunk of stock to force some changes.

The founding Ford family owns 40% of the voting shares in Ford. For the time being, they can probably block any moves that Kerkorian would want to make. But, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), "The next few weeks and months could show how well the team of the activist investor and the company's management co-exist."

They aren't going to get along very well. Much of the trouble at Ford cannot be fixed by Ford. If gas prices stay high, the car market is going to stay tough for every company selling autos in the U.S. If a recessions spread to Europe and Asia, things will be even worse.

What Ford didn't do in the past is also going to keep damaging sales. The firm still makes too many trucks and SUVs and designing enough smaller cars and putting them into production will take several quarters.

Kerkorian, and any other Ford shareholders for that matter, may ask the company to cut more costs. But, Ford may be close to the bone now, and it is impossible to say what there is left to take out of expenses without deeply damaging the company's chance of ever getting its market share back.

Owning a lot of shares in Ford may get Kerkorian a voice, but he may not have anything to say.

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

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian must know something we don't. Or perhaps at his level, he might have other considerations than such trivial matters as a mere $34.5 million. That's the premium his Tracinda Corp. would pay for 20 million of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) shares over today's price if it went ahead with the offer.

On May 9th, Kerkorian offered, through Tracinda Corp., to buy an additional 20 million shares of Ford at $8.50 a share. At the time, it was a small premium over the $8.20 price. Naturally, such a savvy investor had a clause providing him an out should the shares fall more than 10% from the time of the offer. Well, they fell about 18%, but Kerkorian is waiving the provision, saying he will go ahead with the purchase and that "Tracinda continues to believe in Ford's management and turnaround efforts."

For Kerkorian, it's the third try with one of the Big Three. Chrysler and General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) felt his weight in the past, and while he may have effected changes in Chrysler despite, or maybe because, of his failed attempts to take it over, he didn't manage much change and gave up on GM despite owning nearly 10% of it. Currently, Tracinda owns 100 million Ford shares, a 4.7% stake, and will likely own 20 million more by June 9 when the offer expires.

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian said he has added $100 million to his pool of capital for buying shares of Ford, and may borrow as much as $600 million to buy shares, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Bloomberg News reported Friday.

Kerkorian now says he may borrow up to $600 million, up from $500 million, from the Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), according to the filing, Bloomberg News reported.

Ford's (NYSE: F) shares fell 40 cents to $6.75 in mid-day Friday trading, amid a broader market sell-off.

Kerkorian's announcement occurred one day after Ford advised analysts and investors that it had abandoned its profitability target for 2009, due to rising steel and gasoline costs, among other factors, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Ford's shares: not overpriced

Independent stock analyst C. Leonard Bauer said Kerkorian's tactic, should he follow-through and increase his 5.5% Ford stake, is daring, but risky. "Let's just put it this way: Kerkorian would not be radically overpaying for Ford at these price levels," Bauer said.

"Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) recently surprised Wall Street by posting its first profit in ages," notes Mark Skousen in The Turnaround Trader. Here's the advisor's bullish outlook on the auto maker.

"Ford announced a $100 million profit in the quarter, even though sales lagged General Motors and Toyota. I see Ford as a deeply undervalued company that finally is producing good quality cars, both here and abroad, and I don't think higher gasoline prices will have much effect on the turnaround.

"Ford must be seen as a global producer. And foreign sales are booming for Ford and GM. Moreover, now that Ford has decided to include Microsoft's Nuance-powered Sync voice control system in some of its 2008 models, it could help improve sales dramatically here in U.S. showrooms.

"If the profitable quarter continues, Ford now is selling for only 14 times next year's earnings. With revenues of close to $40 billion in the quarter, a smart business person certainly could cut the fat from that and turn a profit, and that is exactly what turnaround specialist CEO Alan Mulally is doing.

"Under his guidance, Ford saved $1.7 billion from cost reductions in the quarter and agreed to sell Jaguar and Land Rover. Wall Street likes what Mulally is doing, and so does billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who is buying its stock. Let's join him by buying Ford."

Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers the latest market commentary and favorite investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.

There's also the bearish case: Ford (F): No short seller faith in turnaround

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) Chief Executive Alan Mullaly has a friend in cantankerous billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.

Kerkorian, who was Chrysler's largest shareholder before the company was acquired by Daimler, is snapping up shares in the automaker, which recently posted an unexpected $100 million first quarter profit. Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. owns a 4.7% position in Ford and plans to offer to buy as much as 20 million shares at a 13% premium to Friday's close, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

"Tracinda has been following Ford closely since the company released its fourth quarter 2007 results which indicated that Ford's management was starting to achieve highly meaningful traction in its turnaround efforts," the company said in a statement. "Last week this was reinforced by Ford's first quarter 2008 results, achieved despite the difficult U.S. economic environment. Tracinda believes that Ford management under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally will continue to show significant improvements in its results going forward."

At least that's how Kerkorian feels now.

Ford (NYSE: F) is up over 7% on news that Kirk Kerkorian has taken a major position in the company.

Sohu (NASDAQ: SOHU) is up over 13% on good earnings.

Wrigley (NYSE: WWY) is up almost 26% on news of a buy-out by Mars and Warren Buffett.

Medarex (NASDAQ: MEDX) is off 12% on news of a delay in FDA action on one of its drugs.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and the author of Ten Stocks Under $10.

The Wall Street Journal's lead Las Vegas reporter Christina Binkley has written one of the best business narratives in years. Winner Takes All is a story about Las Vegas' emergence as something other than a kitschy gambling trap for seniors. Binkley writes fluidly and entertainingly about IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and all the transactions that results in Las Vegas' greatest resorts like Belagio and Wynn Las Vegas.

What makes this book so interesting is the cast of egos, I mean characters. There's Steve Wynn, the megalomaniacal visionary who oversees everything from financing to the color of the carpets in rooms -- while he's going blind. Kirk Kerkorian is the most mysterious of the group, running his empire from an office in California, rarely visiting his properties. Gary Loveman is to Las Vegas what Oakland A's manager Billy Beane is to baseball: a former Harvard professor, he left to enter an industry that was at the time dominated by far less sophisticated people. Employing an army of "propeller heads," Loveman brought a mathematical approach to marketing, transforming Harrah's into the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) of casinos.

By keeping the focus on the people, and moving back and forth between empires, Ms. Binkley keeps this book from degenerating into an endless series of meetings and phone calls, as so many books like this do. If you're interested in looking at the rebirth of Las Vegas from a business perspective, you'll want to buy this one.

It's been three weeks since our Money Face-Off feature ran here at BloggingStocks and on AOL, offering you the opportunity to share who you though had the financial edge in a series of twenty head-to-head match-ups. So I thought I'd take another look and see how things have worked out.

It's hard to pick just one big winner. In terms of the largest lead over a rival, Ivanka Trump easily beats Paris Hilton with 89% of the vote. Others holding big leads over their opponents include Tiger Woods, Warren Buffett, Steven Spielberg, and Rupert Murdoch.

In terms of receiving the most votes, the clear leader is the Oprah Winfrey vs. Martha Stewart match-up, with just short of 150,000 votes. Other big vote getters were Tiger Woods vs. David Beckham, Rudy Giuliani vs. Michael Bloomberg, and Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs. In terms of the liveliest discussions in the comments, the winners are Oprah Winfrey vs. Martha Stewart, Erin Burnett vs. Maria Bartiromo, and Bono vs. Angelina Jolie. Also check out the comments for the J.K. Rowling vs. J.R.R Tolkien, Tiger Woods vs. David Beckham, and Ivanka Trump vs. Paris Hilton posts.

As for the face-off posts here that got the most attention, the clear winner is Erin Burnett vs. Maria Bartiromo, with more than 13,000 hits. Lindsay Lohan vs. Britney Spears and Oprah Winfrey vs. Martha Stewart also attracted lots of readers.

Results for all the face-offs follow below, but keep in mind that the voting is still open. It's not too late to add your vote or let us know what you think.

It's been a week since our Money Face-Off posts ran here on BloggingStocks and less than a week since the Money Face-Offs were featured on the AOL welcome page, and the response has been terrific. Many of the face-off polls have more than 50,000 votes thus far, and some of the match-ups are very close.

The closest of all is the face-off of CNBC anchors Erin Burnett and Maria Bartiromo: 50/50 with more than 61,000 votes so far. And the post has garnered 39 comments so far. The commenters have strong opinions, whether defending Bartiromo or Burnett, wishing other anchors had been included, complaining about the photos, or even questioning the Money Face-Off feature itself. Be sure to check it out.

The face-off between the former and current New York City mayors, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, garnered more than 67,000 votes. While Bloomberg has his defenders, presidential candidate Giuliani currently has a small lead in this match-up, with a little over half the votes. Can he hold on to that lead, though?

The match-up of supermodels turned businesswomen, Tyra Banks vs. Heidi Klum, also has more than 50,000 votes so far. In this case, it's Klum in the lead with about 55 percent of the vote. Only one reader, a Tyra Banks fan, has commented so far. Feel free to add your thoughts about which former supermodel you think is more successful.