On this day in 1998, the brand-new DaimlerChrysler began trading its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The company had formed five days earlier, when the American Chrysler Corporation merged with the German conglomerate Daimler-Benz AG. As a result of the merger, DaimlerChrysler became the world's fifth-largest automaker (behind General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Volkswagen).


Quote from the article:

The Daimler-Chrysler merger, for which Daimler-Benz AG paid $36 billion, was supposed to create a single powerhouse car company that could compete in all markets, all over the world. (Daimler-Benz was known for its high-quality luxury cars and sturdy trucks, while Chrysler's minivans and Jeeps had a big chunk of the growing sport- utility vehicle market; meanwhile, the American company seemed to have mastered the art of high-volume, low-cost manufacturing.) However, things did not quite work out that way. Chrysler actually lost so much money—$1.5 billion in 2006 alone—that in 2007 Daimler paid a private equity firm to take the company off its hands. In 2009, Chrysler filed for bankruptcy again. In order to stay afloat, it merged with the Italian company Fiat.

This Day in History November 17th: "Day One" for DaimlerChrysler on NYSE

comments powered by Disqus

11/16/2010 07:57 AM: This Day in History November 16th: Riker Torpedo Racer sets the world speed record for electric cars by TimothyT
On November 16, 1901, a spare, low-slung car called the "Torpedo Racer"—basically a square platform on bicycle wheels—breaks the world speed record for electric cars in Coney Island, New Y...

11/15/2010 09:33 AM: This Day in History November 15th: Craig Breedlove sets new land-speed record, Plane crashes into Sri Lankan plantation by TimothyT
On November 15, 1965 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, 28-year-old Californian Craig Breedlove sets a new land-speed record—600.601 miles per hour—in his car, the Spirit of America, which cost $25...

11/14/2010 08:21 AM: This Day in History November 14th: Apollo 12 lifts off, Last day for Texas' celebrated drive-in Pig Stand by TimothyT
On November 14, 2006, state officials close the last two of Texas' famed Pig Stand restaurants, the only remaining pieces of the nation's first drive-in restaurant empire. The restaurants' owners w...

11/13/2010 08:36 AM: This Day in History November 13th: Karen Silkwood dies in mysterious one-car crash by TimothyT
On this day in 1974, 28-year-old Karen Silkwood is killed in a car accident near Crescent, Oklahoma, north of Oklahoma City. Silkwood worked as a technician at a plutonium plant operated by the Kerr-...

11/12/2010 07:52 AM: This Day in History November 12: Voyager I flies near Saturn, Goldenrod sets the land-speed record by TimothyT
On this day in 1965, brothers Bill and Bob Summers set a world land-speed record—409.277 miles per hour—on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. They did it in an amazing, hemi-powered hot rod they calle...