[FWDLK] Schremmp Schupport Schlipping!!

[Mike Sersen <msersen@xxxxxxxxx>]

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The latest news in the hottest saga outside of Florida!!


News Article: DaimlerChrysler Shareholder Revolt Widens

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - An investor revolt at DaimlerChrysler sparked by woes
at its U.S. unit, widened on Wednesday as a leading German shareholder
activist called for
group Chief Executive Juergen Schrempp to go.
Economics professor Ekkehard Wenger, a leader of a German
association representing small shareholders, plans to submit a
motion calling for the dismissal of Schrempp and supervisory
board head Hilmar Kopper at DaimlerChrysler's next annual
shareholder meeting.
"We are concerned that on the economic side, the company's
management is doing damaging things," Leonhard Knoll, a colleague
of Wenger's, told Reuters.
The attack from Wenger, an outspoken critic of the 1998
merger of Daimler-Benz AG and Chrysler Corp, is the latest
broadside against management from investors frustrated by the one
third fall in the shares since the deal.
U.S. billionaire Kirk Kerkorian -- the group's third largest
shareholder -- has filed an $8 billion lawsuit against the
company for alleged fraud in presenting the original tie-up as a
"merger of equals" when it admitted later it was an outright
takeover.
A second U.S. shareholder, Stanley Kops PC, filed a class
action lawsuit similar to Kerkorian's on Tuesday, alleging
Daimler lied when it said in 1998 that the merger was one of
"equals."
Few industry experts or lawyers expect the lawsuits will
succeed, but they are a sign of increasing pressure on Schrempp
and the group's management to achieve a quick turnaround at the
ailing U.S. Chrysler unit.
On Wednesday, DaimlerChrysler shares fell 0.5 percent to
46.43 euros by 0940 GMT, just 1.30 euros above last week's
four-year low.
Earlier this month, Schrempp fired James Holden as head of
Chrysler and sent in a team led by Dieter Zetsche to get it back
on track. Some analysts also now question whether it will be back
in the black in 2001.
Chrysler turned in a third-quarter loss of 600 million euros
($512 million) and the company has acknowledged that the
situation there is worse than anticipated, although it has given
no details.
Kerkorian and other dissident shareholders have called for
DaimlerChrysler to spin off the troubled U.S. business, an option
that has been rejected by the company's Stuttgart headquarters.