Berlin - It's official, the so-called "merger of equals" is coming undone. For the first time Dr. Dieter Zetsche, the Chairman of the Board of Management of DaimlerChrysler AG has confirmed that discussions have taken place with potential buyers who've expressed interest in the Chrysler Group. "In this context, I can confirm that we are talking with some of the potential partners who have shown a clear interest," Zetsche said in the speech he delivered at the company's 2007 Annual Meeting held in Berlin on Wednesday.
In recent weeks there have been numerous reports in the media that the Canadian auto-parts supplier Magna International, Cerebrus Capital Management LLC and a collection of investors that includes the Blackstone Group have been taking a hard look at Chrysler. Today, Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Group joined this gaggle of suitors with an offer to pay $4.5 billion in cash for the Chrysler Group. This is far shy of the $36 billion that Germany's Daimler-Benz paid for Chrysler in 1998 when it formed DaimlerChrysler.
Kerkorian's offer comes 12 years to the month after his first attempt to buy Chrysler, when he lost out to Daimler-Benz. Recently he tried to form a global alliance between General Motors and Renault. When that effort failed Kerkorian sold his GM shares. His appointed representative, Jerome York, Chrysler's former chief financial officer, resigned from the GM's board. York is on board with this attempt by Kerkorian to wrest control of Chrysler.
Chrysler officials acknowledged receiving Kerkorian's offer but wouldn't comment on the other discussions. Zetsche said yesterday, "we need to keep all options open, and that I cannot disclose any details, because we need to have the maximum scope for maneuver."
This news helped to send DaimlerChrysler shares up $2.30 yesterday to $83.37.
www.daimlerchrysler.com
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