How Fiat bought a bankrupt Chrysler piece by piece and built FCA
In 2009 Chrysler walked out of bankruptcy with a union pension fund, two governments and an Italian carmaker as its main owners. Fiat started with a fifth of the company, gradually bought the rest, and created an Italian-American group that lasted barely six years before disappearing into an even larger merger.
Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 on 30 April 2009 and emerged on 10 June controlled mainly by Fiat, a union retiree fund and the governments in Washington and Ottawa. Fiat's initial 20% stake reached 58.5% by January 2012, briefly making the combined business the world's seventh largest carmaker. On 21 January 2014 it bought the last 41.5% from the union fund, for a total of US$4.9 billion plus US$5.5 billion in pension obligations, and the formal merger into Fiat Chrysler Automobiles followed on 12 October 2014.
The group was legally based in Amsterdam, managed its finances from London and traded in New York and Milan. The Agnelli family's investment company Exor held 29% of the shares but, thanks to loyalty voting, 44% of the votes. Brands included Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Maserati, run through FCA Italy in Turin and FCA US in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Ferrari was separated in stages and became independent on 3 January 2016.
The 2014 business plan leaned on Jeep's global appeal and the booming SUV market, pushed Alfa Romeo upmarket against BMW and Audi, focused Dodge on performance and quietly shrank Lancia to Italy alone. Dodge's Demon of 2017 produced 840 horsepower, making it briefly the quickest production car in the world, with enough torque to lift the front wheels at launch.
Chief executive Sergio Marchionne startled some union members by hugging UAW president Dennis Williams as talks opened in July 2015, and later credited those talks for a pledge of 2,000 jobs. In 2017 the Justice Department sued, alleging emissions defeat devices in over 100,000 vehicles. The company sold parts maker Magneti Marelli for €6.2 billion in 2019, then agreed a 50-50 merger with PSA worth $50 billion, completed in January 2021, when FCA survived as the legal entity and renamed itself Stellantis.
Source: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
