Daimler’s purchase of Chrysler in 1998 didn’t work as well as expected and the German automaker sold 80% of Chrysler in 2007 to Cerberus Capital, an American private equity group. Cerberus Chairman John W. Snow envisioned returning the USA’s third largest car manufacturer to its former glory. That didn’t happen and by 2009 Chrysler’s survival was dependent on a federal bailout and a partnership with Fiat, the Italian carmaker.
Snow, the former treasury secretary in the George W. Bush Administration, built his optimism on American entrepreneurship and wrapped it in the American flag. In a July 2007 speech prepared for the National Press Club in Washington (and still available on the Cerberus website), Snow said "Cerberus has the opportunity to use the tremendous financial innovation of private investment to turn Chrysler around."
Chrysler Federal Bailouts
But in December 2008 and March 2009, Chrysler requested and received multi-billion dollar bailouts from the U.S. Government. By 2009, it was in negotiations with Fiat to transfer at least part of the company to the Italian firm.
