Ford’s Mulally says he had a talk with GM’s Whitacre on Wed.

Alan Mulally / Ed Whitacre

During a CNBC interview yesterday, FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally said that he talked to General Motors Chairman and new CEO Edward Whitacre. Mulally did not discuss the details of his talk with Whitacre, who became CEO of GM on Dec. 1 after the resignation of Fritz Henderson.

“Well, matter of fact, we did talk yesterday,” Mulally said told Jim Cramer on CNBC. “He’s reaching out just the way that I did when I came in. You want to be supportive because we have a lot of industry issues that we work together.”

Ford, which is the only U.S. automaker that did not ask the U.S. government for a loan in 2009, posted a 3rd quarter profit that surprised analysts. The company expects to be full-year profitable in 2011.

Many analysts have applauded Mulally for executing on a turnaround plan despite a downturn that pushed the auto industry sales to the worst levels since the 1980s.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Reuters