Soros Gives Ford More Cause To Be Giddy

No doubt about it, Ford (F) came out of the springtime auto bankruptcy follies looking a whole lot better than its Motown rivals, General Motors and Chrysler. Now we learn that billionaire investor George Soros took a big stake in the company. Soros. Ford. CEO Alan Mulally has to feel like he’s on top of the automotive world right now.

Sure, there are regrets. If only I had bought Ford when it was at its “You want fries with that?” price of $1.26 per share, laments Autoblog’s Jonny Lieberman. I’ll admit that similar thoughts crossed my mind, but I believe I’m technically prohibited from directly investing in any automaker (ethics!).

Yet before we hand Ford the keys to the kingdom, let’s remember that its market cap of $29 billion is still far less than its overall debt burden of $35 billion. Soros’ investment sends a message, but part of that message is that you need billionaire-investor tolerance for risk to invest heavily in Ford right now. Amateurs could rightly be advised to stay away until Ford manages to rack up enough consecutive quarters of profit to make its huge debt look, well, smaller.