Introduction

Until 1998, the car market knew a slowly, but constantly sale’s increase. As a part of this market, Daimler, a German car’s brand and Chrysler, an American car’s brand decided the 7th of May 1998 to merge, to combine their strengths and opportunities to face the future.

Daimler was created with its original name Daimler-Benz in 1926 and was actually at the beginning manufacturer of automobile engine, automobile and internal combustion engine.

Chrysler was created in 1925. It grew really quickly during the thirties, possessing 3800 retailers in the American territory. It became the most profitable producer in the world during the nineties even if it had brought itself back from the bankruptcy since the World War II.

Both of the brands were really doing fine before the merge, making a lot of profits on the American and European markets. The key-driver of this merge was an opportunity for Daimler to increase its American market thanks to Chrysler’s network, because before the merge, it just held 1% of this American market, dominated by the Toyota luxurious brand Lexus.

Daimler saw an opportunity to increase its American network by using the Chrysler’s one. By the way, Daimler’s CEO Jurgen Shrempp said that Chrysler would not do it alone any longer if the merge wouldn’t happen.

Thanks to this merge, the brand Daimler Chrysler became one of the three biggest car’s company in the world, with a market capitalization approaching $ 100 billion and more than 440 000 employees.

But one question came to the mouth of all the people after one year of merge: True merge or Daimler’s acquisition?

We will see how they managed to merge in heaven and break up in hell.

1. Identify basic organisation design issues at Daimler Chrysler

At the beginning of the adventure, both the CEOs of Daimler and Chrysler said that they would serve as co-chairs for at least three years. But actually, the Daimler’s CEO wanted to rule with his German