Shareholders call for DaimlerChrysler to be renamed Daimler-Benz AG

In an article that sums up nicely the current situtation surrounding the potential sale of Chrysler, the Detroit Free Press reveals that two DaimlerChrysler shareholders have called for the company to change its name by dropping "Chrysler" if the Chrysler Group isn't sold by March 31st, 2008. Shareholders Ekkehard Wenger and Leonhard Knoll have crafted a name change proposal that would insert the potential name change into the company's articles of incorporation at its next annual meeting on April 4th. Wenger and Knoll didn't hold back any punches in the proposal when speaking about the Chrysler Group and the perceived failure of this merger of equals:

• "Maintaining a corporate name that evokes associations with the failure of the business combination with Chrysler is detrimental to the image of the corporation and its products."
• "This is all the more true as unflattering nicknames such as Doting Daimler, Daimler-Crisis or even Crime-ler have long been in circulation."
• "The disadvantages this entails for shareholders, customers and employees can only be borne at most for a short transition period until there is a proper separation from Chrysler. If a proper separation cannot be effected within one year, this would only serve to underscore the need to remove this affliction on the image from the corporation's name."
  

What does it say about the state of solidarity within your company when you have one half being referred to as an "affliction"? Not much. And while we don't read business trade journals in German over breakfast, we've never heard DCX referred to as "Daimler-Crisis" or any of the other nicknames mentioned in the proposal. Of course, now that we have, we'll have to start using them.

The Freep article closes by noting that DCX supervisory and management boards are totally opposed to the namge change, so don't expect them to be ordering new business cards anytime soon.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]