Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. isn't likely to pursue an alliance with Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. because it wants to give its new top executive a chance to revive the money-losing automaker, three people familiar with the plan said.

The strategy reflects a change in thinking at Ford, which on Sept. 1 hired Boeing Co.'s Alan Mulally to replace Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. as chief executive officer. Bill Ford had contacted Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan, in July about a possible partnership if talks fell through with General Motors Corp. GM terminated those discussions yesterday.

``Carlos Ghosn and Bill Ford have given up on each other,'' said Eugene Jennings, a business professor emeritus at Michigan State University in East Lansing. ``There's not going to be any serious talk of an alliance.''

Ford shares rose 4 percent yesterday, the most in three weeks, after GM said it was ending almost three months of discussions with Renault and Nissan. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford, the world's third-largest automaker, is now Ghosn's only option in his quest for a North American partner.

``I said from the beginning that an expansion of the alliance to a North American partner makes sense,'' Ghosn said at a conference in Paris last week. He wouldn't discuss the possibility of an alliance with Ford at that time.

Fix the Business

A Ford spokesman, Oscar Suris, declined to comment. The people familiar with Ford's plans asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to discuss them publicly.

In an interview last week, Chief Financial Officer Don Leclair said Ford had ``thought about a lot of things'' regarding alliances. ``We've concluded for now that what we want to focus on is fixing our business,'' he said.

Ford is slashing jobs and closing plants across North America after recording a $1.44 billion first-half loss. The company last month moved to shed more salaried employees, speed up factory job cuts and accelerate plant closings. Mulally, who began working full-time at Ford this week, is reviewing the company's operations and has yet to announce any major moves.

``Practically speaking, a new CEO needs time to take stock of his situation,'' said John Casesa, a New York analyst with Casesa Strategic Advisors LLC. ``It's pretty unlikely that the first thing he'll do is get in bed with another automaker.''

`Significant Value'

Ford's North American operations have lost money in seven of the past eight quarters, primarily because of sliding sales of pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles. Ford last month projected the unit won't be profitable until 2009, a year later than a target announced in January.

``Renault and Nissan still believe there is significant value creation through expansion of its alliance to a motivated North American partner,'' Andrew Boyle, a spokesman for Boulogne- Billancourt, France-based Renault said after yesterday's announcement.

Ford is cutting 10,000 salaried jobs on top of 4,000 eliminated through this year's first quarter. The company is making buyout offers to salaried workers. It's also telling them there will be firings if enough people don't accept buyouts.

The company is extending buyout offers to all 75,000 factory employees represented by the United Auto Workers union and accelerating planned factory closings.

``Our best sense is Ford needs to focus on getting out UAW and salaried buyout offers,'' Bear Stearns analyst Peter Nesvold wrote in a report yesterday. ``We would be surprised if talks started immediately with Renault-Nissan.''

Junk Status

Ford shares yesterday rose 33 cents to $8.56 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have declined 8.4 percent this year, while GM has climbed 72 percent, the best performance in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. GM fell 9 cents to $33.32 yesterday.

Ford's 7.45 percent bond due July 2031 yesterday rose 1.125 cents on the dollar to 78.5 cents on the dollar, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the NASD. The yield fell to 9.766 percent from 9.915 percent.

Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Services in May 2005 cut their ratings on Ford debt below investment grade, or to junk status. The two ratings companies reduced their ratings again on Sept. 19, four days after Ford announced its latest job-cutting moves in North America.

Aside from the North American restructuring, Ford has resisted other major actions. The company decided not to shed part of Ford Motor Credit Co., which makes loans to buyers of Ford-manufactured cars and trucks. Detroit-based GM is selling a 51 percent stake in its General Motors Acceptance Corp. unit to a group of investors.

May Reconsider

Ford has put one luxury-car unit, the U.K.-based Aston Martin, up for sale. Two other U.K.-based brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, aren't for sale ``at the moment,'' Executive Vice President Lewis Booth said last week in Paris.

In time, Mulally may reconsider an alliance with Ghosn, analyst Casesa said. Renault and Tokyo-based Nissan could help Ford grow in Asia and sell small cars profitably in the U.S., he said.

Given Ford's ``deteriorating financial performance, there is no doubt that the board and the Ford family will have to consider options that may cause the company to lose its independence,'' Casesa said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bill Koenig in Southfield, Michigan at wkoenig@bloomberg.net; John Lippert in Southfield, Michigan at jlippert@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 5, 2006 00:07 EDT