Daimlerchrysler

DaimlerChrysler lost the support of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., as the investment bank cut its recommendation and profit forecast for the German auto maker. DaimlerChrysler, facing losses at its U.S.-based Chrysler unit, was downgraded to "market perform" from "market outperform" on concern about rising costs.

Before Chrysler's new 200, the company's mid-size car was on its deathbed. Last known as the Sebring, the third generation of this vehicle was roundly considered a mess. It was produced without compunction by Chrysler when the company was owned by DaimlerChrysler and later, private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. The Sebring was ugly, stark, poor-performing and noisy. The only excuse for having one in your driveway was you had robbed a Hertz rental agency or had a good day as a contestant on "The Price Is Right.

DaimlerChrysler on Thursday posted improved financial results for the fourth quarter and all of 2005, largely because of higher revenue and profit from its Chrysler unit. But the results reflected lower sales of its Mercedes-Benz and Smart families of autos, and executives said competitive pressures in the U.S. and other car markets posed a continuing challenge for the world's fifth-largest automaker.

Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. will pay $8.1 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by former DaimlerChrysler shareholders who claimed the billionaire investor sold shares in 1999 based on inside information. The shareholders sued Kerkorian and his Tracinda investment company in 2003. They alleged that James Aljian, who helped manage Tracinda's investments and served on DaimlerChrysler's shareholder committee board, passed confidential information about the company's declining cash flow to Kerkorian in 1999.

DaimlerChrysler said Treasurer Thomas Capo is resigning and will be replaced by Michael Muehlbayer, who most recently worked in the auto maker's finance organization. The German American auto maker, based in Stuttgart, Germany, also named Timothy Dykstra to the new position of treasurer of its North American operations. Muehlbayer was one of the first Daimler-Benz executives to transfer to the United States after the company acquired Chrysler to form DaimlerChrysler.

DaimlerChrysler AG announced in Auburn Hills, Mich., where its U.S. operations are based, that it is recalling 2.1 million minivans because of defects that could cause the lift gates to collapse, the windshield wipers to stop and fires to break out under the vehicles. A total of 1.4 million 1991-93 Chrysler Town and Country, Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager minivans are being recalled because the bolts on the lift gate, or hatch, could loosen, the auto manufacturer said.

The Justice Department is investigating whether DaimlerChrysler paid bribes to foreign officials with the knowledge of its senior executives, the automaker disclosed in its latest financial filings. The criminal investigation is tied to an inquiry opened last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission after an employee fired by the automaker said he was dismissed for complaining that the company was using secret bank accounts to bribe government officials.

Dennis K. Pawley, the Chrysler executive credited with turning the auto maker's assembly and parts plants into some of the industry's most efficient, said Friday he will retire from the newly merged DaimlerChrysler to become a manufacturing consultant. Pawley, 57, will leave as vice president of North American manufacturing and labor relations Jan. 31, two months after Chrysler and Germany's Daimler-Benz merged to become the world's fifth-largest auto maker.

DaimlerChrysler said Thursday that its profit more than doubled in the second quarter as improvement at its Mercedes-Benz unit and other businesses outweighed a dramatic slump at its U.S.-based Chrysler Group. The German-U.S. automaker said it expected a slight rise in revenue this year. The company also announced that Tom LaSorda, named Chrysler chief executive in September, had been awarded a five-year contract extension through 2012. Shares of DaimlerChrysler rose 60 cents to $50.12.

Superior Industries International Inc. said that it has won orders for aluminum road wheels from DaimlerChrysler Corp. The terms were not disclosed. Van Nuys-based Superior supplies aluminum wheels and other aluminum components to Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Rover, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan and Isuzu.

Chrysler lost about $2.7 billion in the two months after Daimler sold controlling interest in the automaker to a New York private equity firm, Daimler said in its annual report. The figure, for the period from Aug. 4 to Sept. 30, 2007, was calculated under international financial reporting standards used in Europe and not under U.S. accounting standards, Daimler said.

The former DaimlerChrysler paid a $30.3-million fine last year, the most ever by an automaker, for failing to meet federal fuel-efficiency standards, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. The penalty was assessed for DaimlerChrysler's imported fleet of passenger cars from the 2006 model year, which failed to meet the corporate average fuel economy standard of 27.5 miles per gallon, NHTSA spokesman Eric Bolton said. The automaker was divided last year when Cerberus Capital Management acquired an 80% stake in Chrysler.

The United Auto Workers reached a tentative contract agreement with Chrysler on Wednesday afternoon, calling off its six-hour strike against the No. 3 U.S. automaker. The sudden end of one of the shortest auto strikes ever left many industry observers scratching their heads. "Maybe all they needed was to have a lunch break and it just got misconstrued as a strike," said Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of data tracker Edmunds.com. "It's really bizarre."

The corporate name DaimlerChrysler ended Thursday as it had begun nine years ago, with squabbling over what to call the carmaker. Shareholders approved management's proposal to rename the group simply Daimler AG -- erasing an unwelcome legacy of the failed $36-billion merger in 1998 that linked Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Group -- but only after investor grumbling.

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian wasn't misled about the $36-billion deal that created automaker DaimlerChrysler in 1998, an appeals court ruled. The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld a lower court's 2005 finding that Daimler-Benz didn't disguise the Chrysler takeover as a "merger of equals." Kerkorian, once Chrysler's largest shareholder, sought as much as $3 billion in a lawsuit over the deal.

DaimlerChrysler said Wed- nesday that its second-quarter profit fell 14% and that it planned to spend about $10.2 billion buying back nearly 10% of its shares as it moved forward without its Chrysler division. DaimlerChrysler's profit decline excluding results from Chrysler and its financing arm -- which did better in the latest quarter than a year earlier -- was a steeper 20%. The Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker said it earned 1.44 billion euros ($1.

Wolfgang Bernhard, the former chief operating officer of DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler unit, will become chairman of Chrysler's auto operations after Cerberus Capital Management takes over, according to a person familiar with the situation. Bernhard, 46, is expected to return to Chrysler as the U.S. automaker works to boost sales outside North America while speeding the rollout of new models. He left Chrysler in 2004.

This summer's contract talks between organized labor and the Detroit Three were expected to be tough, with Ford, Chrysler and General Motors all looking for significant concessions from blue-collar workers. Enter Cerberus Capital Management. The private equity firm's purchase of Chrysler seemed bound to raise the hackles of United Auto Workers leaders -- until union chief Ron Gettelfinger on Monday pronounced himself on board with the deal.