Daimler sheds Chrysler in a very expensive divorce

摘要

Dieter Zetsche, chief executive of DaimlerChrysler AG, seemed to enjoy his star turn as 'Doctor Z' in a series of droll TV commercials for Chrysler products which aired in the US and Canada last year. But an interview with Mr Zetsche published 25~(th) June in the German daily Tagesspiegel suggests he is happy to be laying down his American burden to focus entirely on the newly unbound and all-German Daimler AG. DaimlerChrysler agreed in May to sell 80.1 percent of its stake in the ailing Chrysler unit to the private equity investment firm Cerberus Capital Management for 7.4 billion dollars, freeing Daimler to concentrate on its luxury Mercedes brand and its truck business. Mr Zetsche noted in June that the risk of 'unwanted' outside influence on Daimler had significantly diminished, and that its market value had already doubled. The company, its single-minded CEO asserted, is therefore 'no longer a sausage that would be worth snatching at for financial investors.'