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Kerkorian Opens Bids for Chrysler
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Kerkorian then sued the newly named DaimlerChrysler and its chief executive, Juergen E. Schrempp, accusing Schrempp of misleading Chrysler shareholders in the merger. A lengthy court battle ensued. A number of powerful German executives were called to testify, including Schrempp, who left DaimlerChrysler after being excoriated by German investors for the mess with Kerkorian.
The son of Armenian immigrants, Kerkorian grew up in poverty and took a job cleaning furnaces at age 7. He was expelled from school in eighth grade and never went back. He worked as a bouncer and a boxer and flew bombers in World War II, before founding an airline company that he sold to TransAmerica Corp. for $100 million in the late 1960s.
He evolved into the archetypal buy-low, sell-high investor, and in recent decades has taken that strategy to the billion-dollar level. He bought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on three separate occasions when the movie studio was struggling and the stock was cheap. Each time he turned the company around and spun it for a profit. He sold it to Sony for $5 billion in 2004. Today, he heads a $10 billion casino and movie empire that owns nearly half of the Las Vegas strip.
Analysts characterized Kerkorian's latest play for Chrysler as a "low-ball offer" that could be easily exceeded by other bidders. Canadian auto-parts maker Magna International and private-equity firms Blackstone Group, Cerberus Capital Management, and Centerbridge Capital Partners have been reported to be potential buyers.
"Kerkorian has a long and fairly ugly record with Chrysler," said Healy, the auto analyst. "I really don't take this bid seriously. He's in it to make money, as he has always been."
But Kevin Tynan, a senior analyst with Argus Research, noted that many German shareholders are eager to be rid of Chrysler.
"They think this is a nine-year mistake," he said. "It's not at the point where they'll take anything you can get, but [Kerkorian's bid] is not very far from it."
Freeman reported from Berlin. Staff writer Tomoeh Murakami Tse in New York contributed to this report.
