How I Added Value To My Project:

1.  Installed music link under Viper
2.  Organized articles by company
3.  Music upon startup on enter page

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Daimler Chrysler Articles

47 year old Dieter Zetche of Daimler Benz AG was confronted with the challenge of turning around Chrysler, The car company that Daimler bought two years ago.  At the time Chrysler was thought to be one of the most profitable auto makers on the planet but is today losing more that $1 billion a quarter.  Mr. Zetche isn't supposed to just save Chrysler he is to prove that Juergen Schrempp's(chairman) attempt at globalization was not a complete disaster.  Mr. Zetche plans for major cutbacks at Chrysler including; 6000  white collar jobs, 10,000 to 15,000 manufacturing positions, and the idling of six of it's plants.  To comply with it's union contracts, the bulk of it's blue collar layoffs will come through early retirement buyouts.  Mr. Zetche also ordered Chrysler's suppliers to cut their contract prices by 5% and has ordered that their engineers  work with these suppliers to cut another 10% out of the annual $40 billion material budget.         back to top

Daimler Chrysler has announced the biggest restructuring plan the U.S. auto industry has seen in nearly a decade due to the high pressure of European and Asian auto makers.  Chrysler plans to cut vehicle production by 15%, eliminate 26,000 workers, and idle six factories in North and South America. Chrysler is the first of the Big Three Detroit auto makers to down size in the face of a slowing economy and tougher competition.  Much of the loses Chrysler has been taking recently are due to a large incentive war, which was forcing Chrysler to heavily discount their vehicles.  Dieter Zetsche, Chrysler's new chief, hopes that cutting capacity will relieve the profit draining discounts.  Chrysler has to be careful though, while they are planning major cutbacks, the Toyota Motor Corp. is planning to double its North American production.  This could allow Toyota to overtake Chrysler as the number three auto maker in the U.S. market.        back to top

Daimler Chrysler surprised it's South Korean partner Hyundai, in which Chrysler owns 10%, by deciding that it will not be seeking their services in it's "world car" project.  Officials at Chrysler announced that they will be working only with Mitsubishi Motors to build the vehicle known as the Z-Car.  Hyundai officials said that they have no comment on the subject because they had not given thought to not participating in the project  Chrysler officials said it does not make sense to include Hyundai in the project because the Z-Car and an existing Hyundai small car under development aren't compatible.  Chrysler's decision not to include Hyundai delivers a strong blow.  They had been counting on teaming up with Chrysler to ease production costs and gain access to German Technology.  Both companies believe this decision won't hurt future projects as the two are in the final stages of a venture to build trucks in Korea.      back to top

According to unknown sources DaimlerChrysler's third largest stockholder, Kirk Kerkorian, has sold nearly one half of his stake in the company.  These sales come after Mr. Kerkorian's company sued DaimlerChrysler for lying to shareholders when it described the deal that created the company as a merger of equals instead of a takeover of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz.  Mr. Kerkorian's stake in DaimlerChrysler has lost around $2 billion in value over the past two years as the stock price has plummeted from a high of $108 to around $40 a share.  Since Kerkorian's saleoff though, DaimlerChrysler stock has bounced back up around $47 a share.  Had Mr. Kerkorian waited to sell he would have increased his profit by an estimated $64 million.  Mr. Kerkorian plans to continue to dwindle down his shares and pursue the lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler.  DaimlerChrysler calls the lawsuit baseless and continues to receive support from it's two largest shareholders Deutsche Bank and the Kuwait Investment Authority.         back to top

After announcing that it would cut 1000's of jobs at it's Chrysler arm, Daimler has announced that it will increase bonuses paid to much of it's German workers by 11%.  The bonuses paid out will be the largest since the worker management deal was struck in 1997.  The company says this demonstrates the success of it's Mercedes operation.  Officials also say that their plan of linking bonuses to individual units is important because it helps separate the U.S. and German operations.  Although the U.S. workers are sure to be jealous it sets the German workers minds at ease that problems abroad won't hurt them personally.  This division of bonuses serves as a reminder of the difficulty in finding a balance of integrating the U.S. operations into the group.  U.S. workers have been worried about German domination while German workers have been uneasy about Chrysler's problems.         back to top

DaimlerChrysler is trying to reassure it's investors in it's global strategy after profit dropped 44% last year to $3.25 billion.  This is exactly what company officials had warned.  The announcement did offer some relief though, as the company confirmed that the 2000 dividend would not be cut and would remain unchanged from 1999.  A full financial report including a breakdown of performance by divisions is scheduled to be released on February 26th.  DaimlerChrysler chairman Juegen Schrempp has been meeting with major investors in recent days to regain support for himself and the companies global operations that include Mercedes, Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai. 
As much as profit did plunge, the auto maker did say that sales were up 8% and earning per share were at 3.47, which is inline with market expectations but down from 6.21 in 1999.       back to top

DaimlerChrysler is expected to make an announcement at their annual press conference in Stuttgart, Germany, that their unprofitable Chrysler unit should start breaking even in the first half of next year.  The company is making this announcement so their investors can follow it's efforts to turn around the U.S. unit.  Investors are going to be relieved that the company is committed to a turnaround time frame after the Chrysler unit was estimated at having $ 1.5 billion in last years fourth quarter.  Getting Chrysler out of the red ink won't be as easy as some had hoped though.  Chrysler is getting ready to announce a new line of incentives and discounts to help combat the drop in sales.  These incentives are what many feel were responsible for much of Chryslers losses last year.  A spokesperson for DaimlerChrysler stated that the market is dictating what they can and can not do, if we want to get back on a profitable margin we will have to match what are competitors are offering.      back to top

DaimlerChrysler got a chilly reception to its formal announcements of restructuring plans, despite Chairman Juegen Schrempp vowing that the company would show a large increase in profit by 2002.  These restructuring plans will greatly affect Chrysler and Mitsubishi.   These restructuring plans are not starting off very good though.  Officials stated that the cost of restructuring will more than outweigh expected profits this year.  They have also stated that they are likely to have to borrow more money this year after spending billions last year buying out companies and supporting the Chrysler unit.  the Chrysler unit is where the most restructuring will take place, possibly repositioning their product line.  Mitsubishi is likely to cut domestic production, since their sales haven fallen sharply after a possible defect cover-up scandal.        back to top

DaimlerChrysler is likely to see negative operating costs due to restructuring costs in it's U.S. and Japanese units.  Chairman Juergen Schrempp is expected to deliver a message to financial markets about how he is going to turn around the company and he is going to offer a timetable for a return to profits.  Mr. Schrempp is also supposed to offer  reasons for the struggles at Chrysler.  DaimlerChrysler is expected to spend $3.5 billion to fix troubled operations at Chrysler and Mitsubishi.  to go along with all these auto business costs DaimlerChrysler is also expected to pay nearly $500 million to overhaul it's U.S. trucking company Freightliner.  All of these forecasts will be a gamble to win over skeptical investors.  Failing to meet these targets for rebuilding could result in an outcry from large investors such as Deustche Bank who has given the company no more than 12 months to see a turnaround.          back to top

Ford Motors Articles

 An outside expert hired by Firestone Inc. concluded that there is no single cause for the tire failures that mainly occurred on Ford's Explorer SUV, and singled out that vehicle weight might be the key factor in the separation of the tires.  Ford and Firestone are both attempting to move past this crisis that began in August when Firestone recalled 6.5 million tires that had been linked to 148 deaths in the U.S. and 48 overseas.  These tire failures were mainly occurring on the Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer.  All the findings about the tire raise the question of whether the Explorer was to heavy for the tires.  A Ford spokesperson stated that the Explorers load rating is well within the range of similar vehicles and that their stance is that the tires were overly sensitive.  Ford has made some changes nevertheless to its 2002 Explorer, giving it larger tires capable of carrying more weight.        back to top

General Motors and Ford are receiving lower outlooks due to their worsening competition in the U.S. and and weak results abroad.  The credit rating agency, Standards and Poors, has stated that the two companies ratings could decline within the next year if they don't address their problems.  A downgrade would be a huge blow for the companies whose finance units rely heavily on the commercial markets for funding.  Both companies have outstanding debt around $150 billion.  S&P made these moves because many analysts have questioned the auto makers readiness to handle slowdowns in the market.  An S&P spokesperson said that their actions are not just a result of the economy slowing down but a result of deeper problems such as increasing competition from foreign companies in the U.S. markets of sport-utility vehicles and trucks.         back to top

General Motors Articles

 40,000 of GM's workers throughout Europe stopped work to protest against the companies plans to cut as many as 5,000 jobs.  GM and the union are expected to meet to discuss the various worker grievances.  The protest consisted of workers across five nations, putting down their tools for several hours to show their loyalty for European GM workers who are expected to lose their jobs.  In the U.K. alone GM plans to cut more than 2,000 workers.  Union officials found it inspiring that so many workers could hold such a protest over that large of a geographic area.  As well as the demonstration went a GM spokesperson said the disruptions didn't significantly hurt their production.  The plan to cut jobs in the U.K. comes from the difficulty of U.K. based manufacturers trying to compete in continental Europe where the Euro is relatively cheaper than the British Pound.  The jobs that GM is expected to cut should be eliminated within the next 17 months.        back to top

GM has proposed a new venture of online car-selling with it's dealers.  Gm said this new venture named Autocentric JV would handle all of their models of vehicles unlike the GM BuyPower site which only sells GM vehicles.  The new site comes as a surprise to many considering the recent failures in internet car sales.  Profit in this market is nearly nonexistent and many companies have been consolidating.  Still GM sees this as an opportunity to push their own vehicles and provide an enhanced online experience for GM customers.  GM's dealers have had mixed reactions, some feeling like this will take profit right out of their hands and if the internet buying would ever take off it would make the dealers extremely expendable.  GM feels that they have to try out this new technology to find out what works because they believe the internet will be a large part of their mutual success in the future.  Their has been a large number of web-based startups recently so to succeed GM will have to compete with companies such as carsdirect.com.
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General Motor's corporation board has approved a $333 million joint-venture with Russian auto maker Avtovaz to make sport-utility vehicles.  Though Gm officials have not signed anything and have nothing to announce the deal once approved by the European Bank for Reconstruction, could be one of the largest industrial investments ever in Russia.  The investment is a huge risk for GM.  Not only are they putting their name on a vehicle manufactured by a company who produces some of the most primitive cars in the world, they are also counting on Avtovaz's management.  What GM is receiving out of this deal is a vehicle that they can sell in low income areas of the world.  Something GM and many of it's rivals have not been able to do in the past.  GM makes this expansion while cutting jobs in North America and Europe.  Officials have said that they are committed to seek out opportunities for growth in new markets.         back to top

The drop in U.S. auto sales wasn't as severe as many analysts had predicted.  January results have led many officials to believe that consumers may not be slowing down their spending despite the recent decline in the economy.  January sales according to Autodata Corp. totaled 1,179,173 vehicles.  GM analysts commented that they have not seen a change in buying attitude to this point.  Despite all this, the major three automakers are all sticking to their plans to cut production, and believe that sales this year will be down 10% from the record highs last year.  In January GM's sales were down 5% despite strong sales of sport-utility vehicles.  Ford's sales fell 11%.  Both companies said sales to fleet customers helped reduce these declines.  DaimlerChrysler took the worst losses with sales dropping 16%.         back to top