Chrysler ’s new owner, Cerberus CEO Lenard B. Tessler, commented that DaimlerChrysler – now just Daimler – “paid us to take the company.” Although Cerberus wrote a $1.3 billion check to Daimler, the Germans are loaning Chrysler money and eating the company’s short-term losses, according to The Detroit News. The bottom line: Daimler will lose $673 million just by ridding itself of the Chrysler Group.
In 1998, Daimler-Benz paid $36 billion for the “merger of equals” that resulted in one unified DaimlerChrysler. By May 2007, DaimlerChrysler was desperate enough to sell the group to Cerberus, an investment firm, for $1.3 billion. But there’s more to the story than just Cerberus’ purchase price. Daimler’s CEO, Dieter Zetsche, said that “Cerberus invested $7.4 billion into this transaction, which obviously is not any form of being paid.”
In a meeting with shareholders, Tessler made the aforementioned statement that there was more than meets the eye to the sale. Cerberus’ $1.3 billion check gave them ownership of the firm, but Daimler will provide loans and pay off Chrysler ’s immediate losses.
