Michigan Math: Big 3 – Big 1 = Big 2 (Dealbook)
America’s Big 3 automakers became America’s Big 2 automakers yesterday. After a lengthy negotiation process, Italian car company Fiat finally acquired a 100 percent ownership stake in Chrysler. The European company had jointly owned Chrysler with the United Automobile Workers (U.A.W.) union since 2009 when the U.S. carmaker emerged from bankruptcy. By purchasing the union’s remaining 41 percent stake, Fiat closed out a deal worth $4.35 billion. This purchase makes Fiat the world’s seventh-largest car maker. Remarking upon the deal, Robert Naftaly, chairman of the committee that governs the U.A.W. trust, said, “We reached a successful conclusion that will benefit the trust’s retirees… this was always our goal.” The question now is this: Will this deal benefit the company’s investors?
