Will Daimler sell?

Today Automotive news and Reuters reports that Mercedes may put the Chrysler
Group on the block,
Is the Chrysler group for sale? During a presentation to
analysts and journalists today, DaimlerChrysler CFO Bodo Uebber refused to rule out the sale or spinoff of its unprofitable Chrysler group."We don't exclude anything here," including structural changes, Uebber said during his third-quarter earnings teleconference today. "We will do our analysis. Second, we will talk about measures. And third, we will draw our conclusions."Asked again whether DaimlerChrysler has put the Chrysler group up for sale, Uebber repeated the same answer without giving a yes or no. "I don't do any speculation," he said. Chrysler group losses dragged down DaimlerChrysler's third-quarter financial results. The Chrysler group lost $1.47 billion, down from a $393 million profit for the same period a year ago. The company predicts Chrysler will lose $1.2 billion in 2006. DaimlerChrysler posted quarterly net income of $680 million and projects a companywide operating-profit target of
$6.29 billion for the full year.The Chrysler group's loss overshadowed a rebound
at the Mercedes Car Group, whose quarterly operating profit rose to $1.24
billion.DaimlerChrysler has assigned a team of senior executives to study seven
major facets of the Chrysler group's business. The teams have been asked to
improve margins by $1,000 per vehicle. Officials declined to give a timetable
for the internal study.

How Ironic, when Mercedes Bought Chrysler all those years ago and all the outrage after what was supposed to be a merger of equals turned into an outright accusation of
A major American corporation by a foreign buyer such as the Daimler group, now eight years later it looks like the honeymoon is over and Daimler may want to go back
To being Daimler Benz, but who can blame them, Chrysler keeps losing money and the shareholders and board of directors may have run out of patience.
One interesting question is who would the potential suitor be, maybe Toyota? Or GM? Probably neither, there seems to be no reason for Toyota to look at Chrysler, Strategically
A Toyota/Chrysler match up wouldn’t yield anything of value and then again Toyota would inherit the retirement costs and Union contracts that they have avoided in their own
Factories. As for GM they’re really not in the position to make a major purchase like Chrysler,.. ditto Ford.
No, the only real suitor in the picture would seems to be Renault-Nissan, this could really play into Carlos Ghosn's hands, Ford and GM have from the beginning stressed that
They would go it alone with the exception of the possible merger rumor between the two companies some time ago.
No it looks like there’s only one enthusiastic buyer for Walter P Chryslers’ former company, and Renault- Nissan looks to be the most obvious fit.
The synergies here are obviously different than GM’s, and Nissan would have to take a closer look at the situation to see if this makes any sense for them.
The Automotive landscape seems to be reshaping itself and this may the first major change of more to come.
J.