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When all the present stock is exchanged and split, there will be 53,461,470 Ford shares outstanding. Including family-owned B shares and the common stock owned by the employees and to be sold to the public, there will be 14,065,143 voting shares at first (until the Foundation or the family decides to sell more shares). The family's 40% of the voting rights will automatically drop to 30% if its B-stock ownership falls below 2,700,000 shares. If and when fewer than 1,500,000 B shares remain, the family will no longer control a specified percentage of voting rights but will have one vote per share, like common stockholders.
"The Whole Road." Why did the Ford family decide to let the public share control of the company? A major reason, according to associates, was a realization that the era of the family dynasty has long since passed. The family felt that the public which buys Ford cars nowadays feels it has a right to know how much money Ford is making and to buy stock in the company if it wishes. The Foundation's original idea to sell non-voting shares (which may not be listed on the New York Stock Exchange) would have given investors only a token stake in the company, and might have held the stock below its true value. The family decided, in the words of a spokesman: "If you go this road, you might as well go the whole road. When you have strings on it, you fool no one at all."
Although the Ford family will become minority stockholders in their own company, they will be well rewarded for the loss of privacy. The Ford stock held by each of Henry Ford's surviving heirs (Mrs. Edsel Ford, Henry Ford II, Benson, William and Josephine Ford) will now have a market value of at least $388 million if, as Wall Street expects, the shares go on sale for around $60 apiece.
There was no doubt that investors would scramble for the stock when it reaches the market early next year. One big reason was the magic of the Ford name. But probably a bigger reason to hardheaded investors was the earnings of the Ford company. Some 400 investment houses, which will participate in selling the stock to the public, are already being flooded with orders to buy, no matter what the price. Board Chairman Ernest R. Breech reported last week that the company will earn more before taxes this year (an estimated $700 million) than it did in the entire 21 years between two world wars, 1919 through 1939. In fact, said Breech, Ford has already made a greater profit in the first three quarters of 1955 than in any previous full year.