DaimlerChrysler To Lay Off 13,000 Workers
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DaimlerChrysler AG may sell or seek partners for its unprofitable Chrysler division, abandoning its vision of building a successful carmaker that sold luxury Mercedes-Benz sedans as well as Dodge pickup trucks.
“All options are on the table,” the chief executive officer, Dieter Zetsche, said yesterday at a press conference in Auburn Hills, Mich. Chrysler will cut 13,000 jobs, or 16% of the workforce, and close a factory in Delaware.
Today’s announcement follows Chrysler’s operating loss of 1.12 billion euros ($1.46 billion) in 2006. The U.S.company’s sales and market share have declined since DaimlerBenz CEO Juergen Schrempp engineered the 1998 takeover with Chrysler Corp. chief Robert Eaton. The shares have dropped by almost a third since then.
“At some point investors want to see that the end is in sight,” an analyst in Frankfurt at Bankhaus Metzler, which oversees about $39 billion in assets, Juergen Pieper, said. “Chrysler’s problems are multifaceted.”
American shares of Daimler-Chrysler reached their highest level since January 2000, rising $5.33, or 8.3%, to $69.78 at 4.18 p.m. in New York stock Exchange trading.
“At some point investors want to see that the end is in sight,” an analyst in Frankfurt at Bankhaus Metzler, which oversees about $39 billion in assets, Juergen Pieper, said.
