Not exactly.
Daimler bought (in a “merger of equals”) Chrysler in 1998 for equivalent of $36 billion. After the sale they will retain 19.9% after paying additional $650 million, with Cerberus paying $7.4 billion for 80.1% stake, and with the new venture assuming over $19 billion in retirement liabilities, which Cerberus is raising through debt from banks.
Thanks for that detailed information, CutePuppy. If DB retains about 20% of Chrysler, does that mean that some of DB’s engineering will be picked up by Chrysler? I had heard, for example, that some Chrysler products were bettered by DB suspension design, etc.
It still sounds like an ouch for Dr. Z, if he offloads $20 billion in pension liabilities and gets about $8 billion (for a total of around $28 billion to the good) if DB paid around $10 billion more for the merger. Not trying to quibble, but it still looks like an unhappy entry on the ledger for DB.
And the controlling owners of Chrysler are a group that takes its name for a guard dog of Hades? In deference to your screen name, I will not make any further “going to the dogs” remarks.