The merger of Daimler and Chrysler made perfect sense on paper. Now that there is talk of Chrysler being on the block again, did they forget to put critical things on that paper?
Companies often approach mergers with fanfare. Drunk either on success or cowering under impeding failure, they embrace each other in hopes of spectacular results. Often, these great expectations are just pipe dreams.
Diamler and Chrysler had a similar dream. They were going to create the perfect car company. Not sure who had the looks and who the brains but they were both giddy with excitement about the possibilities.
Sad but true, the result has been less than overwhelming. Chrysler is on the block and might be sold to a private equity group in the near future.
So, where did they go wrong? It appears they forgot to factor in their respective business models. The hidden source of business model malaise: mismatched architectures.