Just-auto [sub] reports that Morgan Stanley's head of automotive research doesn't have anything very nice to say about Chrysler's immediate prospects. But, surprisingly enough, Adam Jonas faced the delegates of an Automotive News European conference and told them that Cerberus will make an obscene amount of money [paraphrasing] when they break up the company and sell its parts. "I am actually bullish on the longer-term outlook for Chrysler. They have what a lot of people want. There is brand – particularly Jeep – and technology, design capability and US-based, dollar-based capacity that can hit the market relatively quickly." Say what? Oh, hang on. Morgan Stanley. That would be the company whose "Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) department… excels in domestic and international transactions including acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, recapitalizations, spin-offs, exchange offers, leveraged buyouts and takeover defenses as well as shareholder relations."
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Making cars that people don’t want to drive starts to make more sense when you discover that the people at the top will make make more money that way…
and I guess bankers don’t make big money from cars rolling off production lines.
Morgan Stanley does not have time to read TTAC, ’cause they’re too busy keeping it real.
Rock on and welcome to our new Chinese overlords!
Chrysler is worth more parted out than it is as a running junker.
Once again, to hell with the MBA from Harvard.
To hell with the American business school for its insane teachings.
Its greed, its seeking of the instant turn on the investment.
Its really a religion, seeking out the all mighty dollar at all cost.
To hell with the “international” company and its heartless business leaders and its soul-less, country-less self indulgences.
I, I, Me, Me Mine.
I, I, Me, Me Mine.
Chrysler isn’t worth anything without Jeep.
“I, I, Me, Me Mine.
I, I, Me, Me Mine.
I blame all of you baby boomers.
With us Gen X-ers trapped between you boomers and the idiots they call millenials, we’re all doomed.
I say Chrysler is better off than GM.
morbo: “With us Gen X-ers trapped between you boomers and the idiots they call millenials, we’re all doomed.”
Just keep reminding the boomers that they are the greatest generation that ever lived, and as long as you can tolerate hearing their classic rock played over and over again, you’ll be fine. With the millenials, shower then with lots of esteem-building (but empty) praise every time they find their own way to the restroom (or something equally facile), and they’ll be eating from your hand. No worries.
Morgan Stanley is also advising Pennsylvania on their attempt to lease the PA Turnpike, with the bidding won by Citi plus an Italian firm at $12.8 billion over 75 years. (Governor Rendell needs to sign off on this and passage is not certain.) Coincidence?
I, I, Me, Me Mine.
I, I, Me, Me Mine.…
I remember a song that said “I believe in freedom an charity, as long as I get mine”. How true. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a pile of cash, but to rape those around you to do so is morally bankrupt. It is easy to point a finger at the Republican Party, but in reality the Democrats aren’t much better. The people with the power to really change policy for the better have no interest in doing so unless we, the voters, start ignoring crap issues like where our landscapers come from and start demanding real accountability.
Just keep reminding the boomers that they are the greatest generation that ever lived, and as long as you can tolerate hearing their classic rock played over and over again, you’ll be fine. …
I’m a boomer, and I can’t stand classic rock. I heard all that crap in HS – a long time ago.
Thanks morbo,
I consciously chose to be born in 1952. I’m sure you chose to be born when you were.
There is an attitude out there of I got mine, F Y, and even, I’ll F Y to get it. I deplore this current attitude in our society. I don’t think it is restricted to the “boomers” however. It cuts across all age groups.
Some communist ( I think V Lenin) was quoted as saying that (paraphrasing here) the ‘capitalists would sell you the rope to hang them with’. Yup. Welcome the the 21st century, unrestrained and unethical greed rules!
I so lament the vibrant, innovative, prosperous Chrysler that got FU’ed by Mercedes.
For my part I’m tired of the generation labeling and stereotyping. Near as I can tell, people are born every day and people die every day. Attempts to segment the population into “generations” is actually just a bunch of marketing BS. I have good friends ranging in age from their teens to their early 80s and they don’t strike me as segmenting into nice neat categories.
Marketers and politicians seem to love this label crap, but it is just crap all the same.
“the vibrant, innovative, prosperous Chrysler that got FU’ed by Mercedes”
You are joking right?
DB made a sucker deal and Eaton pulled off one of the deals of the decade selling Chrysler to them at the top of the cycle. The Germans pumped billions into Chrysler before they saw sense, cut their losses and paid Cerberus to take it off their hands. Chrysler has had cronic problems for decades.
I’m with Morbo on this one…but let the rest of us not harbour even the faintest hope that the most selfish, wasteful and destructive generation that this planet has ever witnessed will be capable of the smallest amount of introspection required to analyse their own behaviour…they all appear to have a type of narcissistic personality disorder.
I, I, Me, Me Mine.
I, I, Me, Me Mine.…
F you, F you, F you;
And you and you and you
I, I, Me, Me Mine.
I, I, Me, Me Mine.…
hal, were you living in a bio-dome in the 90’s? Unlike “global warming” the fact that Dumbler screwed over Chrysler is not even debateable anymore. Go look it up on the internet. Read the book “Taken for a Ride”, hell, read the statements of Schremp. And if you research the other companies that Dumbler has aquired over the years, you will see the same pattern. As for sucker deals, it was Dumbler that approached Eaton with the idea of a “merger” not the other way around. They knew exactly what they were doing. Funny thing, the only one in Chrysler’s executive suit as far as I know who voiced opposition to the deal (and the only one who spoke German, had lived in Germany and worked for a German company (BMW)) was Bob Lutz.
morbo, Captain Neek:
As a fellow Xer, I’m with you guys.
Verbal:
Excellent survival strategy!
GenX–too young to enjoy pensions and abundant Vice President jobs of the Boomers (both of which have been eliminated), yet too old to truly capitilize of the impending online social networking boom which will, yet again, revolutionize society (and will be thoroughly under the control of the millenials). Bummer.
Why blame this on the Baby Boomers…Chrysler has been run poorly since the late 1950s, when it rushed Virgil Exner’s sleek tailfinned models into production for the 1957 model year to grab styling leadership. At that point, the oldest Baby Boomer was 10 years old.
Those 1957 cars weren’t ready for production, but management pushed them out the door anyway, and when they rusted and fell apart within 12-18 months, Chrysler’s market share began nose-diving. After 1959 Chrysler’s styling became bizarre (and that’s being charitable).
Chrysler never recovered from the 1957 fiasco. The corporation once claimed about 20 percent of the market, but it never reached that number again after 1957. Plymouth had been the number-three seller for decades until 1954 (when it was knocked out of third place by Buick), and it regained that position in 1957. But it lost it in 1961, and only regained it in 1971 and 1974. Chrysler’s strong position in the medium-price market also declined after 1957.
Chrysler made many dumb decisions over the years…it never gave Plymouth a dedicated dealer network; it allowed Dodge to compete directly with Plymouth, instead of staying focused on the medium-price market; it downgraded the Chrysler marque and robbed it of the prestige it enjoyed at least through the late 1960s.
Chrysler has been declining for years…but instead of a continuous downhill slide, it has been more like a roller coaster. This downhill ride may be the final one….
It’s not generational, it is more economic. Think about it, what capitalism (the investment bankers and the people with capital) can do for us is what we all enjoy having. Bigger homes, nicer cars, health care, plenty of food, and a 40 hour work week. Granted some have more than others, but I don’t think any of us would trade what we have for a comfy spot in the former USSR, or in Europe or Japan for that matter.
So let the guys at Morgan Stanley etal do their thing, of course they are aren’t perfect, but then anyone of you can always get your shit together and work there if you have a better idea.