b.cognosco

How Many Chryslers?

Truly the Daimler-Benz purchase of US-automaker Chrysler in 1998 was a stupefying disaster. Through the alchemy of its business acumen, Daimler management transmuted the value of Chrysler from an estimated $40 billion to a value of, to judge from the current bidding, around $5 billion, give or take a few hundred million.

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But some good can come out of the merger. Based on what seems to be the approximate price of the company, we will describe big mergers and acquisitions henceforth in terms of Chrysler unit, that is to say, in $5 billion increments. For example:

• AstraZeneca bought MedImmune for three Chryslers ($15 billion).
• The latest bidding for ABN Amro has raised the price of the bank to nearly 20 Chryslers.
• Nestle bought Gerber for a little over one Chrysler.
• Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya bought an Alabama bank chain for almost two Chryslers.
• State Street Bank bought IFS for bit less than a Chrysler.