Daimler Chrysler is no More

In a news release published at 10:29 local German time, DaimlerChrysler announced that it will sell off its Chrysler division to American private equity fund Cerberus for approximately 5.5 bn Euro.

According to a report by Reuters, DaimlerChrysler will be rebaptised and become Daimler AG after the demerger.

According to Reuters, Chrysler had been acquired by Daimler Benz in 1998 for 36 bn USD. The deal marks the end of a painful history of failures on behalf of the German management at Daimler, who had pulled out of a joint venture in a similar embassy-rooftop manner as is now the case with Chrysler. Besides the potential Siemens-failure, awaiting final punishment over quality problems as a result of employee-disloyalty, itself being the result of a ruthless hire- and fire policy which can be expected some years down the line, the demerger should be amongst the biggest cashburns in living German management history.