the largest to date, more than 10 million
shares were offered to the public at $64.50
per share. In the end, the Ford Motor
Company gained about 300,000 owners,
and the foundation realized more than
$640 million from the sale.
Like the Sears, Roebuck & Co. IPO
almost 50 years earlier, which Goldman
Sachs also underwrote, the Ford IPO was
a major boon for philanthropy in educa-
tion. The Foundation used its funds to
give away approximately $500 million to
colleges and universities, hospitals and
medical schools. As for Goldman Sachs,
the Ford IPO was also reminiscent of the
Sears IPO in that it brought the firm an
enhanced reputation and new prominence
as an underwriter.
Blyth & Co., which had originated as
a western regional house, was given the
nominal honor as chairman of the man-
aging committee, most likely because it
was, according to The Wall Street Journal,
“as well known on the West Coast as in
the East,” and the Foundation wanted “‘to
achieve the widest possible distribution of
the shares to the public.’”
But from start to finish, Weinberg was
generally acknowledged as having played
the major role in organizing the F ord
deal, cementing his place in financial his-
tory, where he came to be known as “Mr.
Wall Street.” In August 1956, he joined the
board of the Ford Motor Company, where
he remained a director until his death in
1969.
Cover of the January 30, 1956 edition of Life magazine featuring
an article on the Ford Motor Company IPO.
stock and “a reclassification of the stock”
of the company.
In return, E.J. Kahn Jr. observed, “The
Ford family increased its equity in the
company by 1.74% — which, reckoned in
terms of the stock’s value on the day it
was marketed, amounted to a paper gain
of nearly $60 million.”
Before the Ford Foundation announced
the stock sale on November 9, 1955, the
underwriting community had been in
suspense for more than a year, wonder-
ing which firms would be chosen to be
the syndicate managers. In addition to
Goldman Sachs, the top firms were: Blyth
& Co.; First Boston Corporation; Kuhn,
Loeb & Co.; Lehman Brothers; Mer-
rill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane; and
White, Weld & Co.
The Wall Street Journal commented
that “a notable absentee is Morgan Stanley
& Co., a house noted for its long-stand-
ing financing connection with General
Motors Corp., Ford’s principal competi-
tor.” The seven co-managers led an under-
writing syndicate of 722 firms (205 on
the tombstone) at $63 per share. Utiliz-
ing a network of 1,500 securities dealers,
Susie J. Pak is an Associate Professor in
the Department of History at St. John’s
University (New York). A graduate of
Dartmouth College and Cornell Uni-
versity, she is the author of Gentlemen
Bankers: The World of J.P. Morgan
(Harvard University Press). She is a
Trustee of the Business History Con-
ference and co-chair of the Columbia
University Economic History Seminar.
She also serves on the Editorial Advisory
Board, Business History Review.
Read the full version of this
article with footnotes here.
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