DaimlerChrysler Is Still A Mess
As I have posted many times, I am quite bullish about the future of Ford and GM. Both companies have very successful international operations and are dominant & profitable players in Europe, South America and parts of Asia including China and India. Both have tremendous small car expertise to call upon in their American turn around and both have very deep and wide engineering, manufacturing , supply chain and design centers globally. ie, This is not 1974. So, while GM and Ford have sold alot of junk in America, they make some exciting products for the global markets. ie, They know how to do this and do it successfully. They just need to shake up their US operations.
Now let's contrast that to DaimlerChrysler. First off, there is little precedence for mergers of equals being successful. There have been quite a few case studies done which reinforce this data point. Of course, Morgan, Goldman and others aren't going to make this a well known point when they are looking at what could be ten figure fees for a deal like this. The merger of Chrysler and Daimler was an ill-conceived marriage of two cultures which will never mesh. Cultural synergies are often overlooked in the M&A business where getting the deal done, egos and greed reign supreme. The merger was doomed to failure from the start and the best thing for all involved would be to break the union apart in my opinion. While that may sound like an odd proposition, this rumor has been floated around time and again. It is not that difficult to imagine or to accomplish.
Shareholders were deceived and senior management sold out for hundreds of millions of dollars going into individual pockets. Frankly, I consider this deal totally immoral in how it was sold and ultimately executed. Investment bankers sold everyone involved a line of hooey and shame on both management teams where ego and greed was more important than IQ or corporate responsibilities.
It appears Chrysler still has a few of those American Motors designers hanging around. The ones who designed the Matador and Pacer, two of the ugliest cars ever to grace this planet. Uglier than cars sold in the old Soviet Union and just as miserable from an engineering & quality perspective. So, here we go again. While GM and Ford have quite a few hot designs in the pipeline or already hitting the markets, Chrysler comes up with a car Autoblog.com nominates for the ugliest design sold in Britain, the Jeep Compass Rallye. Whoever thought this design should actually be approved for production should be shot. Hundreds of millions or more wasted. A failure before the first sale. A Cadillac Cimarron redux. Who is running the show over at DC? Dr. Z? When a car company can let such a generally acknowledged ugly beast make it to production, something is very wrong. I really don't think Chrysler is going to make its European sales goals with this ugly duckling. Hey, Dr. Z, that sure is a fine looking Mercedes.
Now let's contrast that to DaimlerChrysler. First off, there is little precedence for mergers of equals being successful. There have been quite a few case studies done which reinforce this data point. Of course, Morgan, Goldman and others aren't going to make this a well known point when they are looking at what could be ten figure fees for a deal like this. The merger of Chrysler and Daimler was an ill-conceived marriage of two cultures which will never mesh. Cultural synergies are often overlooked in the M&A business where getting the deal done, egos and greed reign supreme. The merger was doomed to failure from the start and the best thing for all involved would be to break the union apart in my opinion. While that may sound like an odd proposition, this rumor has been floated around time and again. It is not that difficult to imagine or to accomplish.
Shareholders were deceived and senior management sold out for hundreds of millions of dollars going into individual pockets. Frankly, I consider this deal totally immoral in how it was sold and ultimately executed. Investment bankers sold everyone involved a line of hooey and shame on both management teams where ego and greed was more important than IQ or corporate responsibilities.
It appears Chrysler still has a few of those American Motors designers hanging around. The ones who designed the Matador and Pacer, two of the ugliest cars ever to grace this planet. Uglier than cars sold in the old Soviet Union and just as miserable from an engineering & quality perspective. So, here we go again. While GM and Ford have quite a few hot designs in the pipeline or already hitting the markets, Chrysler comes up with a car Autoblog.com nominates for the ugliest design sold in Britain, the Jeep Compass Rallye. Whoever thought this design should actually be approved for production should be shot. Hundreds of millions or more wasted. A failure before the first sale. A Cadillac Cimarron redux. Who is running the show over at DC? Dr. Z? When a car company can let such a generally acknowledged ugly beast make it to production, something is very wrong. I really don't think Chrysler is going to make its European sales goals with this ugly duckling. Hey, Dr. Z, that sure is a fine looking Mercedes.
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