Chrysler
becomes American...but not really. 
Saturday,
August 4th, 2007
On Friday, a private equity firm - Cerberus Capital
Management - finalized a deal with DaimlerChrysler, making
Chrysler the first major American automaker to now be privately
owned since Ford (more than 50 years ago). 80.1% stake in
Chrysler was transferred to Cerberus, a $7.4 billion deal.
The name is being changed to DaimlerChrysler AG, and they are
having a company celebration on Monday where the old five-sided
star logo will be revived. With this new acquisition,
Chrysler is liberated from its former German parent company, and
the nine-year DaimlerChrysler global merger is coming to an
end.
So, is this good? For American business, it looks like a
victory. But if you look deeper, it's not all peaches
and cream...or, should we say, apple pie.
"Under Cerberus, Chrysler is expected to make a
major push into international markets and seek more alliances with
foreign automakers." -The Houston
Chronicle
"Chrysler is undergoing a massive restructuring,
which includes eliminating 13,000 jobs over three years...and closing a
Delaware assembly plant." -The Indianapolis
Star
And here's a real sour apple: about a month ago,
Chrysler signed a deal with China's biggest automaker, Chery,
to manufacture vehicles in China for export to the U.S.
There was a signing ceremony held in Beijing, at a guesthouse of
the Chinese government, where former Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda
said:
"As of today, we're committed to building vehicles here
for export. We will combine Chrysler's research and
technology and global reach with Chery's lead
manufacturing."
This is a perfect example of why if you are relying only on the
mass media, you are not getting the WHOLE story.
All of the articles and news releases on the DaimlerChrysler
acquisition paint a proud picture of business being brought to
the U.S. Sure, the truth is buried in their somewhere - in
news from a month or two back - if you keep searching, and
searching, and analyzing. But that's what you've
got us for. So who really wins here? It doesn't
seem to me like the winner is America - instead it seems to be
Cerberus, just another American company selling out. If the
vehicles are being manufactured in China for cheap labor,
and then sold here for a huge profit that goes into a private
firm...who wins?
Here is an e-mail that we sent to Hartmut Schick, head of Global
Relations for Chrysler LLC:
So far, no answer. Send him your own e-mail here. It is not until people actually
speak that their voices can be heard. We will post any
response/s on our site...here's to hope for American
manufacturing.
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