Private equity firm CerberusCapital Management will buy the majority of DaimlerChrysler's
Cerberus Capital Management gets an 80.1% stake in Chrysler and its related financial services business, DaimlerChrysler said on Monday, ending what was billed as a marriage made in heaven but that never lived up to the name.
"The investors in Europe have been clamoring for this for some time," CNBC’s Phil LeBeau said Monday. "…This is a case where this marriage just never worked to the degree that the people in Stuttgart thought it would work. I think after nine years, they’re happy to be rid of Chrysler."
The deal, months in the making, puts a major U.S. automaker in the hands of a private equity group for the first time.
"One thing they’re looking at and they’re very excited about is the possibility of taking Chrysler Financial, which is small compared to GMAC," LeBeau said. "But if you take Chrysler Financial and put that together with the 51% of GMAC, you’ve got a real nice financial institution, particularly when it comes to auto lending. On the Chrysler side, they’re not going to do anything in the foreseeable future -– five or six months down the road."
General Motors
Once the transaction is closed, Cerberus will receive the automaking business of Chrysler free of debt.