Taken for a Ride: How Daimler-Benz Drove Off with Chrysler - Hardcover

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Bill Vlasic is a reporter for the Detroit News and a former Business Week correspondent. He lives in Birmingham, Michigan, with his wife and three children.

Bradley A. Stertz is an assistant editor of the Detroit News and a former reporter with the Wall Street Journal. He lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, with his wife and two children.

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"Vlasic and Stertz tell a riveting tale about gentleman at play in the decidedly ungentlemanly game of high-stakes, international boardroom piracy. A supercharged, 200-mph read all the way."
―Brock Yates, author of Outlaw Machine

"This is a clear-eyed expose of how the car business works - with a narrative that speeds you through the intrigue with all the velocity of a Dodge Viper. It plunks you right on the filing cabinets as the motor titans clash."
―Robert Lacey

Aus dem Klappentext

It was the deal heard round the world. In May 1998, a stunning $36 billion merger was announced by Chrysler, the all-American automaker, and Daimler-Benz, the German manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz luxury sedans. The Wall Street Journal christened the deal "the biggest industrial merger of all time." The marriage of Daimler and Chrysler promised to rock the global auto industry and draw up a blueprint for international consolidation on an epic scale.
But the union of Chrysler, the blue-collar maker of Jeeps and minivans, with Daimler, the crown jewel of German industry, didn't turn out to be a merger made in heaven. When the dust settled, Daimler had bought Chrysler, and the shock waves reverberated on both sides of the Atlantic. An American icon lost its independence, and a German giant grew in power and influence.
The DaimlerChrysler deal brought together two automotive superpowers and triggered a chain reaction among competitors seeking partners around the world. In a gripping narrative ripped from the daily headlines, Bill Vlasic and Bradley A. Stertz of the Detroit News go behind the scenes of the defining corporate drama of the decade. With groundbreaking reporting, they reveal the untold story behind the unsuccessful attempt to take over Chrysler by its biggest shareholder, the reclusive billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, and its legendary retired, Lee Iacocca. Their startling grab for the smallest of Detroit's Big Three automakers sparked secret talks between Chrysler and Daimler on a massive joint venture. The first deal collapsed, but it set the stage for the final intense negotiations between Chrysler chairman Robert Eaton and Daimler chairman Jürgen Schrempp. It was hailed as a historic "merger of equals", but the euphoria evaporated amid a clash of cultures, identities, and personalities.
The action moves feverishly around the world with larger-than-life characters in the high-stakes arena of international automaking. Taken for a Ride follows the twists and turns in the road to DaimlerChrysler and, in the end, emerges as a cautionary tale of the risks and rewards of going global.

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Taken For a Ride How Daimler-Benz Drove off with Chrysler By Bill Vlasic and Bradley A. Stertz Chapter One The two men faced off in a dreary hotel room at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, emissaries from different worlds at a dangerous intersection on the morning of April 10, 1995.

Alex Yemenidjian laid a black-covered document titled "Project Beta" on the table. Darkly handsome with olive skin and slicked-back black hair, Yemenidjian was the protégé of Kirk Kerkorian, one of the world's richest men and the owner of thirty-six million shares of stock in Chrysler Corporation. Born in Argentina, raised in Los Angeles, and fiercely proud of his Armenian heritage, Yemenidjian seemed coiled, tightly wound, a little nervous. "It is our understanding that you are familiar with the model," Yemenidjian began stiffly, his accent an exotic mix of Spanish and Armenian dialect. Tom Denomme sized up the smooth-talking casino executive in the Hugo Boss suit across from him. He had to be very careful. "Yeah, we're familiar with it," Denomme replied. "What is the specific message you would like us to carry to Bob Eaton?" "Time is of the essence," Yemenidjian said. Denomme stared him in the eye. "Where is the money coming from?" he asked. "Don't worry about that," Yemenidjian said coolly. "Just tell Bob Eaton that we are going to do it." Denomme, the fifty-four-year-old vice chairman of Chrysler, was nick-named "The Priest" for his serious, circumspect demeanor and measured counsel. Tall, with chiseled features, his thinning brown hair meticulously parted and graying at the temples, Denomme could have played the strong, silent, Gary Cooper role of sheriff in the old Hollywood Western. He wasn't about to reveal anything to this slick stranger from Las Vegas. A few weeks earlier Denomme had met in this same hotel with Gary Wilson, the high-flying financier who engineered the takeover of Northwest Airlines. Wilson had already laid out Project Beta for Denomme. Things were moving faster. It wasn't a matter of weeks anymore. The clock was ticking down. If Kirk Kerkorian had the money to buy Chrysler, the seventh biggest corporation in America, Denomme couldn't stop him. But Denomme could not fathom how it had come to this. If Kerkorian thought Chrysler's management would join him in leveraged buyout, he was sorely mistaken. Instead, Chrysler stood ready to fight him.

Denomme and Gary Valade, Chrysler's chief financial officer, left the airport and drove to company headquarters in Highland Park, Michigan, a decaying industrial enclave on the edge of Detroit. They took the elevator to the fifth floor of the K. T. Keller Building, and Denomme called his boss. Chrysler Chairman Robert Eaton took the call in New York, where he was meeting with Wall Street investors before the 1995 New York Auto Show.

"Bob, we can't be a party to any of this," Denomme said. "We've just been through the whole cultural thing, convincing everybody that this is such a different company. For us to jump on the side of a buyout would be just traumatic." Eaton didn't say much. He never did. He agreed with Denomme and hung up.

Yemenidjian and his aide, Dan Taylor, flew back to Las Vegas and sped to a small, sun-splashed, two-story office building a mile from the Strip. They went straight to Kerkorian. A tennis fanatic and onetime amateur boxer, Kerkorian looked much younger than his seventy-seven years. A shade under six foot tall, he had a wiry physique, deep tan, and full head of graying hair swept back in a pompadour. His features seemed oversize: large ears; bushy, arching eyebrows; a wide toothy smile. Kerkorian was worth about $3 billion, but he courtly, deferential, almost shy. Everyone he encountered received the same soft-spoken greeting. " Please," he would say, "call me Kirk."

"So," Kerkorian said, "how'd it go?" The deal was on track, Yemenidjian said. For six months feelers had put out to Chrysler executives about an enormous deal to take one of the world's biggest companies private, to buy all its stock and own it. Kerkorian was convinced it could be done. Chrysler stock was so cheap, $40 a share, and the company was a money machine, throwing off $1 billion in excess cash every quarter. This was the third face-to-face meeting between the two sides. Denomme seemed "very intrigued," Yemenidjian said. He never raised any objections and asked a lot of questions. Everything looked set. All that was left was Kerkorian to call Bob Eaton and give him the word.

Kerkorian had chafed for months about Chrysler's feeble stock price. He had prodded Eaton several times to raise the dividend and repurchase stock, and Eaton had complied once before, in December 1994. But now Kerkorian wanted more. In his opinion, taking Chrysler private was too sweet a deal for Eaton or any other Chrysler executive to turn down.

Lee Iacocca, the retired chairman of Chrysler, lit a cigar in the next room. Iacocca savored the moment, which he had planned with Kerkorian for months. Iacocca believed the opportunity was ripe. Taking Chrysler private was the deal of a lifetime, one that would make him richer and restore his influence over his old company. They were so close to making it happen. A few more days, and Iacocca would be back in action again.