Amazon
It all started with a misunderstanding. Kirk Kerkorian, the Las Vegas wheeler-dealer, thought Chrysler's management would back him up if he tried to take the company private. Chrysler's management thought they'd made it clear they had no interest in such a deal. As the two sides faced off--Kerkorian and legendary Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca on one side, current Chrysler boss Bob Eaton and his top executives on the other--Mercedes-Benz CEO Helmut Werner stepped in. The result is the company now known as DaimlerChrysler. But Vlasic and Stertz make clear no one really knows the result of the deal. It's far too early to tell if blending the manufacturer of sleek German luxury sedans with the Detroit-based progenitor of the minivan will succeed in the global marketplace. Instead, they show in riveting detail how the deal came to be, and the immediate aftermath. They give us private moments with the major players and show us the multilayered considerations that crop up when two gigantic companies merge. Another book will have to judge the ultimate success of the merger, but the immediate results aren't exactly promising. By late 1999, a share of the original Chrysler was worth a few pennies less than it had been before the merger was announced, and only about a dollar more than before Kerkorian made his move back in April 1995. --Lou Schuler


From Publishers Weekly
"We are in German merger hell," moaned a Chrysler lawyer during the negotiations that would create a new global mega-entity, Daimler-Chrysler, out of the union of Daimler-Benz, the standard-bearer of luxury sedans and Germany's largest company, and Chrysler Corp., the quintessentially American maker of Jeeps and minivans. Yet Daimler-Benz's $36-billion buyout of Chrysler in 1998 was widely hailed as a paradigm-busting leap forward in the cost-efficient manufacture and development of cars and trucks. Now, Detroit News reporter Vlasic and Stertz, the paper's Washington bureau chief, draw on more than 200 interviews conducted in Detroit, Stuttgart and elsewhere for a riveting, behind-the-scenes account of the transformation of an American icon. Even though newly acquired Chrysler racked up record sales and profits in 1999, the authors find that the dynamism of the erstwhile Big Three automaker is being smothered under German control. They record the growing pains of a marriage of opposites, pairing a German conglomerate that embraces formality and hierarchy with scrappy, patriotic Chrysler, whose informal cross-functional teams favored open collars and free-form discussions. The first third of the book details the abortive 1995-1996 takeover attempt of Chrysler by Lee Iacocca, its former chairman and one-time savior, and his partner, casino tycoon Kirk Kerkorian; the portraits of both men are etched in acid. The rest of the book is a fast-paced ride through oversize egos, raw tempers, secret meetings, titanic clashes and power plays of the cross-cultural corporate merger of two automotive behemoths. (July) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The Wall Street Journal
"A convincing portrait...a fascinating tale."


Allan Sloan, Washington Post
"Vlasic and Stertz roll out telling anecdote after telling anecdote showing how the boys from Stuttgart overpowered the Americans."


Larry King, USA Today
"A fascinating, page-turning read."


From Kirkus Reviews
A carefully documented yet spirited account of a corporate marriage seemingly made in hell.Nothing in the corporate cultures of Germany's Daimler-Benz and America's Chrysler suggested that the two would make a good match, according to Detroit News journalists Vlasic and Bradley: "Daimler and Chrysler didn't develop, manufacture, market, or sell cars the same way. Daimler executives had larger staffs and fatter expense accounts. Chrysler officers had broader responsibilities and bigger salaries and bonuses." Vlasic and Stertz also note that Daimler was worth much more than Chrysler, by nearly every measure, and that Daimler's staff spoke fluent English and was perfectly at home in the global market, whereas the Detroit-based firm was resolutely insular and proud of its blue-collar, made-in-America ethos. Even so, in the mid-1990s, when billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian began to maneuver against self-promoting Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca for control of the company--initiating, for instance, steps to buy up stock and return Chrysler to its former privately held status--he found curious allies in the German and Swiss executives who controlled Daimler-Benz (and who sought to broaden their American--and then the Asian--market). In 1998, after long, cloak-and-dagger negotiations that the authors recount in vivid detail, the parties engineered what has been called "the biggest industrial merger of all time," involving a swap of stock valued at $38 billion and a restructuring of the corporate giants on both sides of the Atlantic. The merger had unforeseen consequences large and small; the authors note, for instance, that Kerkorian, who had ordered a new Boeing jet for his own use, had to switch to an Airbus, for with the union of Chrysler and Daimler he had become the largest single private investor in the Airbus consortium. More to the point, after the Germans "took control over an American icon," they found themselves heading an unwieldy entity that may in the end do damage both to the Mercedes and the Chrysler brands (and one that, in any event, "did not make any money for shareholders on either side of the Atlantic Ocean").Sometimes breathlessly narrated but always interesting, this is a solid work of popular business reporting. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.



"An excellent book."



"A fascinating, page-turning read."



"Superb."



"Filled with new information and gives a masterful portrait of all involved."



"Taken for a Ride is without doubt entertaining, readable, and strong journalism."



"Taken for a Ride...is filled with new information and gives a masterful portrait of all involved."


Book Description
Here is the book that exposed the Daimler-Chrysler "merger of equals" as a bold German takeover of an industrial icon. Taken for a Ride reveals the shock waves felt around the world when Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler for $36 billion in 1998. In a gripping narrative, Bill Vlasic and Bradley A. Stertz go behind the scenes of the defining corporate drama of the decade -- and in a new epilogue chart its chaotic aftermath.


Book Info
In a gripping narrative, Bill Vlasic and Bradley A. Stertz go behind the scenes of the defining corporate drama of the decade, the German takeover of an industrial icon. Softcover.

FROM THE PUBLISHER