Chrysler (Company)

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"Merger of Equals" with Daimler-Benz

In January 1998, Chrysler was sold to Daimler-Benz to form DaimlerChrysler, and this sale was billed as a merger of equals by both the then Chrysler CEO Bob Eaton and Daimler Benz CEO Jürgen Schrempp. This new company claimed they expected to save $1 billion in the first year of the "merger" and $1.5 billion in the second year on the cost of parts alone. However, Mercedes engineering and design operations refused to share their "expertise" with the Americans of Chrysler and the one joint venture the merger actually created, the Crossfire sold less than 50,000 cars in three years of production. Once Eaton retired, Schrempp admitted the merger of equals was a lie. DaimlerChrysler then gave Dieter Zetsche the CEO position of DaimlerChrysler, who then proceeded to discuss the problems the company was then facing with former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca and briefly halted Chrysler's downward spin.

References

Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca, pages 151 to 164