Ford Posts $100 Million First-Quarter Profit But Layoffs May Loom as Only Half of the Recent Buyout Offers are Taken

SUGAR LAND--April 28, 2008--Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) (Dearborn, Michigan) posted its first profit since the second quarter of 2007 during the first quarter of this year. Figures indicate the struggling automaker posted a $100 million profit during the first quarter of 2008 largely because of strong sales in South America and Europe, which helped to balance the weak U.S. market. At the same time, Ford had offered buyouts or early retirement packages to its 54,000 hourly United Auto Workers (UAW) (Detroit, Michigan) employees, yet only 4,200 workers (8%) accepted the packages, about half of what the company was looking for.