No idea about Opel-Magna thingy, but…

It might be a good idea for da Germans from ze government to next time send some real hard dicks to the negotiation table and not some punk ass like Roccoponte Steinbrück and certainly no cackhanded vicar’s daughter. BECAUSE if Fiat should be approached again by Berlin, bear this in mind:

In the span of 2 days, Fiat has downgraded its commitment to Chrysler from ‘married for life’ to ‘get yourself together in 6 days or you’re toast’. Evidently the Justice Department’s delay in dealing with the pesky Indiana pension funds is starting to test Fiat patience.

On Monday Fiat’s CEO Sergio Marchionne’s response to whether or not they would walk away from a deal with Chrysler it it wasn’t completed by June 15th was emphatic

Opel-Magna deal not sure

According to the German FAZ the Opel-Magna deal should be finalized by September. It is hard to see what is so time-consuming in buying a car company that you were interested in for at least two months. The reason is the O-M deal is just a luke warm M.O.U.

In fact the deal is far from a done deal. According to La Repubblica:

Il governo tedesco è ancora aperto a tutte le potenziali offerte per Opel. Lo ha fatto sapere il portavoce dell’esecutivo di Berlino, Ulrich Wilhelm. „Il dossier è ancora aperto a tutti gli offerenti“, ha detto Wilhelm, precisando che le trattative tra la casa automobilistica tedesca e il gruppo austro-canadese Magna sono ancora in fase preliminare. 

Short translation is the deal is open still to any offer – apperto a tutti gli offerenti! There is more. Yesterday were talks with the Chinese:

il gruppo cinese avrebbe avuto colloqui con il governo tedesco ieri.

The car industry insanity

Nietzsche once said something about insanity in individuals, where it is rare, and in organizations, where it is the rule.

The Economist has a piece about Fiat and the merger mania. The following sentence sums it up best and very precisely:

But if the shake-up is likely to be less dramatic than Mr Marchionne expects, that is only because much of the industry remains addicted to wildly unrealistic market-share forecasts and value-destroying investments.

So expect the car idiocy to last well into the coming years.

An Italian in Berlin

That was a couple years back. Don’t expect the same welcome today in Berlin for another gentleman from the Bel Paese.

Mr. Marchionne is the very able leader of a sexy car company – unlike Opel on both counts – yet one can expect the Germans in their sometimes typical xenophobia to put up the hatches and demand some preconditions which are just what they are: a total megalomaniac non-starter.

And when that is combined with the dipshits of the unions you can expect some decent shit to hit the fan. Enjoy Monday. Gosh, does this Opel fuck bore.

Getting ugly: Chrysler-Fiat-Opel-EU

Read this in Italian and enjoy. Are the Germans already deploying panzer?

Fiat-Opel nuptial. Yawn.

We are about to run out of companies that might be interested in Oh Pel.

“Sono totalmente focalizzato per l’operazione con Chrysler“, ha aggiunto sostenendo che Fiat non dara’ capitali a Chrysler per salvarla dal fallimento. E su Opel ha ribadito che “Chrysler e’ la priorita“’.