Reclusive billionaire car-nut (wow, that would be a great business card to have) Kirk Kerkorian wants to buy Chrysler from Mercedes, for the knock-down price of $4.5-billion, about half what DaimlerChrysler has so far indicated that it wants for the loss-making American giant.
Kerkorian is a former majority shareholder in Chrysler, who lost out big time in the 1998 merger with Mercedes, and later tried to sue the Germans, claiming that they had fiddled the deal to make what was called 'A Merger Of Equals' into an outright takeover.
Kerkorian currently has a major shareholding in GM, and it's understood that the potential deal with D-C involves the German side of the house making sure that Chrysler is neatly and properly separated, and that a deal is done with the unions about employee healthcare costs, currently thought to add almost $1,000 to the price of every new car.
Kerkorian, and his investment group Tracinda, reckons that Chrysler, if properly managed, can survive and thrive even in a world where its core SUV and MPV models are suffering as Americans turn to smaller, more efficient cars. Thus far, DaimlerChrysler isn't making any comment on the bid, only saying that it is in talks with a number of potential investors.
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