Autoblog

No one knows yet what Cerberus is going to do with Chrysler. However, the possibilities probably include quite a few things that wouldn't be normally expected in the car business -- such as GMAC and Chrysler Financial working closely together.

Cerberus hasn't made any mention of such, yet -- that comes from GM CEO Rick Wagoner in his first public comments since Cerberus was announced as the winning Chrysler bidder. Cerberus bought 51% of GMAC last year, and now runs Chrysler Financial. Wagoner's comments, however, were very open and non-committal -- specifically, he said "I think it's possible you could see opportunities for Cerberus-owned Chrysler Financial and Cerberus-owned GMAC to seek out opportunities to work together." GM isn't looking for such a tie-up, it is simply open to "potential synergies" should such cooperation be shown to be in everyone's interests. He did appear sure that such a proposal -- for working together -- would be coming in time. If Cerberus did combine the two, it would rule the auto loan market, taking the number one spot from Ford Motor Credit.

[Source: Automotive News, sub req'd]

When possible, we like to cross-reference stories with other news sources before we report on them, and we've found this to be even more important when the topic at hand is hard data. When we came across a Reuters' story proclaiming that GM CEO Rick Wagoner was taking a 25-percent pay cut beginning in March of this year, a quick search of Google News revealed that, depending on the source, there could be a $370,000 discrepancy – and a possible raise for Wagoner.

[Sources: Bloomberg, Detroit Free Press, Detroit News, GM, Reuters]