We have no idea who will end up with Chrysler once all this madness ends, but we can say that there are already quite a few winners in the process -- DCX stockholders.While we all sat and played the Hyundai vs. GM vs. ? game, the stock price shot through the roof. Apparently in the minds of shareholders, any buyer would be better than Daimler at this point. The stock closed up four-percent, trading at its highest price since 2001. At the closing bell, the final price was 56.08 Euro (about $73.74) per share. We first mentioned rumors of the sale on Valentine's Day and within a few days the story had exploded into unconfirmed, yet very probable, negotiations between GM and DaimlerChrysler, with Hyundai appearing out of nowhere and then quickly dropping out. While we figured the buyout was probably not going to happen, and that pickups were the basis of the talks between GM and Chrysler, the rumors persist.
[Source: Reuters]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DJ @ Feb 20th 2007 8:01AM
How about this:
GM and VW, in partnership, buy Chrysler AND Smart. GM folds Jeep into Hummer and VW takes the rest. VW's sales network in the US is much smaller than Chrysler's, so that gets much bigger, they get the minivan market and a large car platform to replace the Phaeton.
wally @ Feb 20th 2007 9:23AM
When dcx sells Chrysler, Toyota merges w/dcx in merger of equals!!! Takes their truck business & folds mb cars into LEXUS. Daimler only remembered in history books!!!!!
tikirob @ Feb 20th 2007 9:36AM
Well at least something made the stock go up. I think DCX needs something. I do not think GM is what it needs, they have there own problems. I think VW might be a way to go since they already have a bit of a partnership.
Rob
http://www.autoshortlist.com
jamie @ Feb 20th 2007 11:35AM
Here's the inside story:
The reasons GM is looking at buying Chrysler:
1. Chrysler would add sales of 2.65 million cars a year to GM's 9 million, keeping it way ahead of Toyota.
2. $62 billion in additional revenue
3. Plums such as the Jeep brand which could remerge with Hummer, the Chrysler 300, not to mention the lucrative minivan market.
GM is looking at this as getting all of Chrysler's market share with just a little of its structural cost.
Then GM and Chrysler could combine engineering of vehicle platforms (eg. GMT900) and thousands of parts, systems, and engines to save billions.
A large portion of Chrysler's 18,600 white-collar workers (legal, purchasing, technology, public and engineering) would be gone, as either Chrysler workers or their GM counterparts are laid off to eliminate redundancies.
Remember that former Chrysler President Robert Lutz has also hired a handful of Chrysler stylists in the past couple of years.
GM is finally coming together as one global company, using models developed in one market (like Opel in Europe) and selling versions of it around the globe the way Honda and Toyota do.
Dieter Zetsche floated the idea that he was open to divesting Chrysler.
Downside:
1. Chrysler the lost $1.4 billion last year and announced job cuts of 13,000 due to heavy over-investment in gas guzzling trucks and SUVs just before the oil prices rose.
2. If merged smoothly, there would be additional cash flow and profits to help fund its huge retiree health-care liabilities. GM would inherit the $22.6 billion in health-care liabilities that come with Chrysler's 98,200 retirees. But the logic is that Chrysler has 1.4 retirees for every worker and GM has 3.8 pensioners per staffer. So the added cash flow from a leaner, meaner Chrysler would make it easier to fund both liabilities.
Both companies have overfunded pension plans.
3. There would be major overlap.
4. GM would have to reduce overhead very quickly.
5. It would require a huge deal with the UAW.
6. GM would also add Chrysler's bloated dealerships to its own 7600 franchises. Chrysler has already said it needs fewer than the 3400 dealers it has. But getting rid of them is expensive, as the $1 billion Oldsmobile deal proves.
7. However the deal is done, it has to be a very cheap purchase for GM, because the company will need oodles of cash to fix many of the problems. Daimler paid $38 billion for the company, and even though management is eager to relieve pressure from shareholders and unload it, selling Chrysler at a fire-sale price will be an embarrassment for the Germans.
A source in the Daimler camp says that there are several interested parties (Hyundai, Renault-Nissan, and Chinese manufacturers as well). News reports from Europe say Korean automaker Hyundai. So Zetsche may have many options besides GM.
In any case, it's looking more and more like Chrysler's nine-year marriage to Daimler is headed for divorce. Anyone interested in a Buick 300?
James Bond @ Feb 20th 2007 12:51PM
I think everyone is overlooking Nissan who just a short time ago was looking at Ford and GM. They have Design Class in the same arena at DCX, Have State of the art Production and Robotics in plants where attitude alone could streamline operations with a lower cost base manangement initiatives that could organize DCX. Union mentality of, that is not my job has hurt the Big 3 over the years to where now they are just not competitive, Someone else, in another operation, who is glad to work is saying I will do it and make us profitable and proud to be part of a company who isn't standing by watching things happen but being a part of something great! Operations could be reduced from some of overlapping layers of personal with too many specialty jobs and not enough flexiblity to be a low cost operator. The high cost of this form of operation builds much higher that retirees and health care combined. Not to mention this will orchestrate a huge footprint to market the Nissan/Chrysler Brands immediately. I think both of these companies are great at what the do and among the best and it would make the most sense among all the talk and discussion to be the ones that ultimately merge. I think all the others are a smokescreen to this and could be well rewarded with a great sales year!
KC @ Feb 20th 2007 1:49PM
I just don't see either the Japanese or Koreans wanting to buy into the headaches of the UAW that contributed to the sorry state of American auto companies in the first place.
Nissan already has serious quality control issues at a couple of their American plants without the UAW/CAW, I doubt they are to interested in owning plants controlled by the UAW/CAW.
No matter what I am sad to see Chrysler in this sorry state. They were always my favorite of the big 3
Nowhere @ Feb 20th 2007 7:33PM
Hyundai was never interested in DaimlerChrysler to begin with. It was just a rumor. It's kinda offensive saying that Hyundai is interested in this piece of crap.
Nowhere @ Feb 20th 2007 7:39PM
Continue...
It's like being accused of liking an ugly woman.
Barney @ Feb 21st 2007 12:05AM
It was rumoured that Boeng was going to build a plant in my area, some years back. Real estate sky rocketed and developers were making big dollars. The rumour was unfounded and property value dropped to an all time low. The developers who sold what they had before hand, made money. Those who didn't had problems getting rid of the new homes. It all depends on how fast the hand moves. No one has given any commitment to the sale of Chrysler. NO ONE!
jt @ Feb 21st 2007 7:25PM
GM isn't going to buy Chrysler. GM has nothing to gain, really, by swallowing up Chrysler and its liabilities. That would entail taking a big serrated knife to all the overlap and excess nameplates and the whole thing from beginning to end smells like bleeding money on the floor. When you take GM as a global whole, it's just not that desperate.
There's actually some big news coming that I'm surprised hasn't really been picked up yet. Some of my friends have been whispering to me that SAIC was very interested when the word came out that Chrysler was possibly available. Some of their reps have been making calls to gather information for building a business case.
The rough sketch is that the Chinese government would help SAIC would give Daimler a decent deal for joint ownership of a spun-off Chrysler. If all goes well, a few years down the road SAIC and Daimler negotiate a price for SAIC to buy out Daimler's half.
Initially, SAIC would run Chrysler's plants and learn as much as they can from the new flex manufacturing plants. As product lines come up for refreshes and full redesigns, they'll be designed to be built in Chinese plants using flex processes and then exported back to the US and around the world. At the same time, "higher end" SAIC models can be exported to the US under the Dodge name so that they can get a foothold using the existing dealership, service, and parts infrastructure. It would be much, much more costly and time-consuming for SAIC to build the brand equity and logistical infrastructure from scratch.
SAIC also gains access to Chrysler intellectual property, engineering resources, supplier relationships, r&d facilities, etc, etc. They gain product lines in market segments that they wouldn't have to develop from scratch. They would share a lot of the costs with Daimler, including some of that health-care and pension liability. By the time they take over completely, most of the US Chrysler plants will be gone and the workers will get "Separation of Employment" bonuses partially paid for by the sale of assets from closed plants.
Daimler get as whack of cash up front and reduced exposure to Chrysler which keeps the German banks happy. But, because it's not a total separation at the outset, Daimler still gets to enjoy some of the economies of scale and other benefits they've enjoyed. Over time, they can tranfer some of the people they like to Daimler, including some of the German that went to Detroit to "fix" Chrysler. For the length of the partnership, Daimler develops a relationship with a Chinese automaker that could eventually (with Chrysler technology) build entry-level MB classes at lower cost. At the end of the deal, when SAIC takes Chrysler over completely, they hand Daimler another whack of cash.
Chrysler's bit in the deal? Initally, it's quite good because Chrysler gets stable ownership and SAIC will help Chrysler get some cheap small cars to sell and a great foothold in the Chinese market. There won't be any plant closures initially, and there might even be some capital investment. All that will help sell the deal to the US (although that would be for mostly marketing purposes). Eventually though, the manufacturing will move to China and other low-wage countries.
By then, however, the world will have gotten quite used to a Chinese-owned Chrysler. The same way the world got used to a German-owned Chrysler.