Lear Corp

Activist investor Carl Icahn has made a $2.43-billion offer for auto parts supplier Lear Corp., the two parties said Monday. Icahn affiliate American Real Estate Partners said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it offered to buy Southfield, Mich.-based Lear for $36 a share in cash. Lear shares surged $3.97, or 11.5%, to $38.64.

Auto parts supplier Lear Corp. said Friday that it had agreed to a buyout offer by a group affiliated with billionaire investor activist Carl Icahn for about $2.8 billion, but it left the door open for a better offer. At least one major shareholder said he would try to get others who own stock to oppose the deal. Under the agreement, Icahn-controlled American Real Estate Partners would pay $36 a share; a Lear spokesman said that amounted to about $2.8 billion.

Lear Corp. on Monday accepted an increased $3-billion takeover offer from billionaire Carl Icahn, but doubts remained as to whether the auto parts maker's shareholders would support the new deal. Icahn, Lear's biggest shareholder, raised his offer to $37.25 a share from a previous $36 that proxy advisory firms and several shareholders called too low. Just weeks ago, Icahn stood firm against raising the offer.

Ford Motor Co. will put soybean-based foam cushions in the seats of the 2008 Mustang and may do the same with other models as well, eventually saving thousands of barrels of oil in the manufacturing process, the automaker said Thursday. Ford is teaming with supplier Lear Corp. to install the seats at a joint Mazda-Ford factory in Flat Rock, Mich., the company said. Most automakers use petroleum-based foam, with an average of 30 pounds going into each vehicle, Ford said.

Lear Corp. shareholders rejected a $2.9-billion buyout offer Monday from a firm led by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, mounting enough opposition amid concerns that the bid undervalued the auto parts supplier. Icahn's American Real Estate Partners had improved its offer in the last week to $37.25 a share, but some shareholders said Lear was worth far more and questioned whether the deal was in their best interest.

Private equity firm WL Ross & Co. and automotive interiors supplier Lear Corp. said Monday that they had signed a deal to create a joint venture to look for acquisitions in the automotive interiors sector. The announcement was just the latest sign of consolidation in the U.S. auto parts sector, which has been buffeted in the last year by bankruptcy filings, including Delphi Corp.'s petition this month for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

United Auto Workers union members ratified by a 233-38 margin a Lear Corp. contract that provides a 43% raise over three years. However, the workers, who assemble seats in jobs that were once handled by General Motors workers, will still end up earning significantly less than the approximately $21 an hour that workers earn in most GM plants. Seat assemblers at the Lordstown, Ohio, plant now make $10.50 an hour.

Lear Corp. said it will cut about 2,800 jobs, or about 5% of its work force, as it closes 18 plants in a previously disclosed plan to reduce costs in North America and Europe. The world's largest maker of car seats will take a pretax charge of about $133 million, or $1.37 a share, in the fourth quarter, which analysts said is expected to result in a loss for the quarter.