Daimler Drops "Chrysler" from its Name

DaimlerChrysler AG, one of the most celebrated German auto major, announced on Thursday that it is changing the company's name to Daimler AG again, citing the recent sale of its U.S. Chrysler division as the reason behind renaming the company.

DaimlerChrysler AG Chief Executive and former head of the Chrysler unit Dieter Zetsche said the name change would signal a new start for the company after it sold a majority stake (80.1 percent) in struggling U.S. arm Chrysler to buyout group Cerberus Capital Management LP.

"The group name Daimler clearly indicates that we are writing a new chapter in our history, while at the same time continuing our tradition as the inventor of the automobile," Zetsche told the shareholders gathered in Berlin for the voting.

German carmaker’s 4,700 Shareholders, to whom Zetsche summoned to approve a name-change, agreed on Thursday to change DaimlerChrysler AG's name to simply Daimler AG, bringing to an end, the nearly decade long partnership that failed to live up to its billing.

Nearly 99 percent of shareholders’ votes were casted in favor of the change, the company said. The change is though effective immediately, but it will take until early next year to change logos, stationery and 170,000 e-mail addresses.

However, some of the company's shareholders feel strongly that the old name Benz, which was dropped from the company's name in 1989 to accommodate the word Chrysler, should be restored.

Some shareholders, who want the old name Daimler-Benz to be restored, are reported to have put forward a proposal to rename the company to Daimler-Benz AG.

Karl Friedrich Benz and Gottlieb Daimler each developed vehicles with internal combustion engines in the 1880s. Their companies, Karl Benz's Benz & Cie. and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, founded by Daimler, merged in 1926 and began selling Mercedes cars, named after the daughter of a man who financed Daimler’s early production.

Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler-Benz AG bought Chrysler in 1998 for $36bn, but the manufacturer of iconic brands such as Jeep and Dodge trucks has been in and out of the red ever since. Chrysler's U.S. market share dropped to 12.9 percent from 16.1 percent in 1998. Declining sales and the cost of closing factories and shedding workers to bring production capacity in line with demand have hammered profit.

Chrysler was put up for sale on February 14, when Chief Executive Zetsche said Daimler would look at all options for the company. On that very day he unveiled a turnaround plan that called for the automaker to close plants and cut 13,000 jobs, about 16 percent of its North American staff.