Discussion of Cerberus purchasing Chrysler
You have to check this out. NPR's show called Open Source had an hour-long discussion on private equity and the Daimler Chrysler-Cerberus deal in particular. Cerberus bought Chrysler (for $7.4Bn) in what is certainly not the largest private equity deal, but certainly going to be the most talked about deal.There are many angles that people are exploring with regards to this deal. Some of these are: the deal structure and how in essence Daimler has actually paid about $145M to get rid of Chrysler, how if Chrysler gets revived under private hands it would be such a mega victory for private equity. Also how people are misconceived about private equity being just cut, slash and sell type of job where as in reality it is much more than that. Private equity is being compared to the leveraged buyouts of the 70s and the 80s and how people are misconceived that only financial types are running the show. Today's PE deals are mega-team works which involve not only the finance types, but also strategists, operations gurus and core engineers who have experience in the same field itself or a close enough field.
Even if you're not interested in private equity, but are interested in business, you have to check out and listen to this discussion online. It features Daniel Primack of PEHub who I have written about earlier, Josh Lerner, Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School and Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.
Tagged: Private Equity, Chrysler, Cerberus
