15 replies to this topic

[Megatron]

Gee, that would put an unusual alliance between Jag and Mecedes Ilmor, eh?

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DaimlerChrysler's measures to curtail uncertainty

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In an effort to curtail the uncertainty of DaimlerChrysler employees, the company has announced job cuts for 28 000 employees from North America.

This comes in the wake of falling profits for the company and speculations that Ford motor company is interested in buying the Mercedes brand from DaimlerChrysler.

CEO for the Chrysler Group, Dieter Zetsche commented on the job cuts by saying: "The market is deteriorating and our company's performance even more so. The markets are shrinking, competition is brutal. To be competitive, the Chrysler group needs to be a more nimble company. Along with exciting products, this will establish a sound basis for future growth."

[Nathan]

Hmm I had heard GM to bvuy Mercedes and possibly Honda to pick up Chrysler.

I think the last would be funny. You have Honda building engines for the largest auto company in the world and owning another that is 3 times bigger. Oh the irony. But dont think it will happen.

[Witt]

It shouldn't affect Mclaren/Mercedes too much. Remembering that it's Ilmor who design and build the engines, so it just depends who's funding Ilmor. VW and GM are two companies looking at Formula One in the future, what better way to enter F1 than buy Ilmor?

[iconic]

too cheapskate i reckon, ilmor isn't 'that' famous to 'ordinary' people. they need a brand name that is well estabilished. also i doubt honda will buy anyone or be bought. they like independance.

[B.Traven]

The simple idea of Mercedes being sold tho some American company is absolutely nonsense , and represents more a wish from some in this forum than a plausible fact . I think that the Daimler Benz branch of Daimler-Chrysler is one of the biggest , if not the bigger , industrial corporation in the 3rd world's economy ( Germany ) , with involvement in many different activities besides cars, like trucks, aviation ( Airbus ) , defense and aerospace ( DASA ), electronics , railroad machinery , naval machinery , etc. By no means it can be compared to Volvo or Jaguar , for instance .
Besides , the Mercedes branch is highly profitable .
It's more likely thus thet Daimler will get rid of Chrysler , if the American branch could't come back to rails . Maybe Chrysler would become Daimler's Rover , and they should sell it symbolically for one buck to Honda , Toyota or Renault

[Nathan]

GM reportadly has over $50-billion sittin in the bank to do some buying. Id think that may be enough. Remember its not Daimler owns Chryler or vice versa..its they own each other.

[SchuMic]

I've heard in a news report it is Chrysler branch that is in trouble and had some big losts. They didn't talk about the German part (Mercedes/Daimler).

I don't see Daimler Chrysler selling Mercedes which is quite profitable and a very famous brand.

Employees will get fired, that's sure...

[david_martin]

I think GM would need more than $US50 billion for that. The DCX market cap based on the current "bruised" share price is around $US55 billion and GM would need to go well above that gain complete ownership. The significant European institutional investors, without whom a controlling stake would not be possible, would need a lot of convincing to sell if a hostile takeover were to ensue.

But the most important point is that GM or Ford simply would not be allowed to by regulatory authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. At the very least I would expect the EU Commission would demand the GM sell Opel and unwind its recent deal with FIAT. SAAB and Vauxhall would probably go under the spotlight too. I suppose the Japanese Govenment would also look carefully at DC's existing holdings in Mitsubishi, givne that GM already control Isuzu and hold stakes in Suzuki and Subaru. And that is without getting into the problems of the Aerospace division, which would require individual approval of all the companies and govenments involved in Airbus for the civil aviation side, and it would be even more complex on the defense side of the aerospace business. Ford would probably have even less luck as their European operations, with the exception of their PAG assets, which they would be unlikely to want to sell, are even less "granular" than GM and would be nearly impossible to break up to appease the EU regulators.

Just can't see it flying.

[HSJ]

B. Traven, I have to agree with you. It seems that there are people here who want bad things to happen to McLaren and Mercedes, and also talk about Hakkinen's retirement as imminent. And it seems that the motivation behind both is that they wish that the competition to MS/Ferrari would just go away. I guess deep inside they are scared. BTW, Mika won't retire after 2001 even though the British media and MS fans talk about it happening.

[SchuMic]

I've just read an article about the problem and it is confirmed that's only Chrysler that has serious financial problems. In 1999, they sold 18,8 millions car in the US. In 2000, only 17.7 millions and it should be between 15 and 16 millions for 2001.

They're going to close 6 factories: 1 in Detroit (Michigan) and the 5 others in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico. 26.000 people should lot their jobs.

Concerning the merge between Daimler & Chrysler, it is far to be an equal merge. Daimler is known to rule the group.

GM is also in trouble on the US market: they supsended the activities of 5 factories and dismissed 14.400 employees.

I got all these infos from a belgian newspaper (so the article is in french).

Mercedes won't be sold...

HSJ, are you paranoiac? No one mentionned MS/Ferrari, MH departure or whatever! So why talking about that? IMO, even if I'm a MS/Ferrari fan, I wouldn't want to see Mercedes to be sold. They're a F1 standard and anything that could have a dangerous impact on them is not what WE, F1 fans, want to see.

Does not matter with MS/MH stupid bashing. So keep that away, please.

[t@nk_girl]

Daimler Benz merged with Crystler (took over = more correct) in order to have the whole palette of cars from high-end (Mercedes) and middle and low-end (Crystler). Sales infrastructure, technical platforms etc. could be exchanged. However, Chrystler was and is in big trouble, wherease the brand Mercedes is proftitable. Mercedes is the primary brand of German industry.

DaimlerChrystler selling Mercedes to Ford is the biggest joke I've read in this BB (posts of assasen included). This would NEVER happen.

Just to make it clear: MacLaren, Ilmor and F1 are completely irrelevant when one starts talking about the importance of the brand Mercedes.

t@nk_girl

[Nira]

A very interesting post. As all companies own each other, the industry provide generic cars with just marketing differences.

This is why I enjoy the last years of Hondas independence, and regard Honda to be the last motor company with a soul. The soul of the founder that is, a genius in his own rights.

[Sudsbouy]

The chairman of Daimler-Chrysler has gone on record as saying it was an acquisition of Chrysler, rather than a merger. Chrysler had some problems going into the deal, however, they have lost a significant number of key personnel as a result of the manner in which the deal was completed. The chairman is apparently a very autocratic individual and this has adversely affected the joined companies' ability to retain key personnel.

In general, US auto industry analysts are saying the problems currently being experienced by Chrysler would either not have happened or not had the impact they currently do, if those individuals had been retained.

On the sales front, Chrysler's new model introductions have not gone as planned. Some are experiencing weaker demand than anticipated (e.g., their mini vans), while others are doing much better than planned (e.g., production of the PT Cruiser is way behind). In the long run, the loss of design staff will negate what was formerly a key strength of Chrysler.

While the German markets are more patient than those in the USA, word is the chairman has been given 18 months to fix the mess. Otherwise, he will be looking for another job. However, one of his strengths is turning around companies, with Mercedes being the most recent example.

Thank you.

[Andy]

See: http://www.atlasf1.c...?threadid=14650

[The RedBaron]

Daimler Chrysler is my company's biggest client (both in 2000 and 2001), I can tell you that it wasn't a merger, Daimler Benz were the dominant party. DC have cut their media (internet presence) budgets for 2001 which might impact on our Detroit office in terms of future redundancies being made..
A few months ago, the Daimler Benz management team was installed in place of the existing Chrysler management team (kicked out) in Detroit, but that hasn't worked out to well either. I think Chrysler will be off-loaded at some point down the line, unless it becomes more profitable after these cost cuts..

[JV 1]

Need to bring back Iacocca.