GM: No Chrysler Merger

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

Slipped that one in, eh? The official statement, via The Detroit News: “GM has recently explored the possibility of a strategic acquisition that it believed would generate significant cost reduction synergies and substantially strengthen GM’s financial position in the medium and long term, while being neutral or modestly positive to cash flow even in the near term. While the acquisition could potentially have provided significant benefits, the company has concluded that it is more important at the present time to focus on its immediate liquidity challenges and, accordingly, considerations of such a transaction as a near-term priority have been set aside.” To which Chrysler CEO Boot ’em Bob Nardelli responded, “”Chrysler LLC neither confirms nor discloses the nature of its private business meetings, as many times they do not come to fruition. Returning Chrysler to profitability continues to be the key focus of the management team. We are significantly challenged by today’s economic environment and by the automotive industry’s unprecedented downturn. As an independent company, we will continue to explore multiple strategic alliances or partnerships as we investigate growth opportunities around the world that would aid in our return to profitability.” Good luck with that, then.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Alex Nigro Alex Nigro on Nov 07, 2008

    I heard that Hyundai stepped in for talks. True?

  • Ronin Ronin on Nov 08, 2008

    Not sure why we're talking about Chrysler mergers as though it has anything to do with people actually buying cars. What instead would be up for sale is the name of a company. It is essentially paper being moved to someone who thinks it is a get-taxpayer-money-for-free card. Which it probably is. Is it worth spending $n billion for a name that may well get $m billion in taxpayer bail-out money this year (and the year after and the year after and the year after)? Not a bad gamble. The cars? Just camouflage, to make it look as though Chrysler were actually a going concern. Who cares if anyone actually buys them. Along the lines of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village

  • Windswords Windswords on Nov 08, 2008

    Usta Bee & no-versa: Just a few years ago Chrysler consistently scored higher than Nissan on both the JD Powers initial quality and 3 year studies. I don't know what the scores have been the last 2 years. Nissan has always basked in the glow of Toyota and Honda as has Mitsubishi. Neither of those companies made as reliable cars as Toyota, Honda, or even Chrysler. When Chrysler was taken over by Daimler they had better reliability than Mercedes but Daimler thought they could teach the poor Americans about building "reliable" cars. So they instituted Mercedes style quality control at Chrysler. Chrysler reliability got worse. I hear it's better now that the Germans are gone.

  • AlphaWolf AlphaWolf on Nov 09, 2008

    windswords : Exactly. I keep telling people about Daimler making Chrysler worse, most people do not realize this.

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