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Daimler to rejig top ranks
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February 21, 2001: 8:15 a.m. ET
German-American automaker to shake up execs as big U.S. charge looms
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LONDON (CNN) - DaimlerChrysler will shake up its top ranks as the world's fifth-largest car maker attempts to get its stuttering U.S. division back on track.
The Stuttgart-based car maker is expected to unveil next Monday a one-off charge of $2 billion to $3 billion to restructure the ailing Chrysler Group, a source close to the company told CNN.com on Wednesday.
Quoting industry sources, Reuters reported on Wednesday the Chrysler restructuring charge will come in between  2.5 billion and 3 billion ($2.28 billion-$2.74 billion).
DaimlerChrysler declined to comment on the speculation about a change in the management team.
Separately, DaimlerChrysler is expected to bulk up in the hot U.S. market for outsize cars. Its Freightliner unit, a maker of 18-wheel vehicles, is set to lift the veil on a sport-utility vehicle based on its colossal "Unimog" military vehicle, according to a report in the New York Times on Wednesday.
At a long-awaited news conference next Monday, Chairman Juergen Schrempp is set to tinker with his managerial line-up – just weeks after the company aired plans to axe 26,000 Chrysler jobs and close six U.S. plants.
The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Schrempp plans to set up a new committee that will oversee the Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler divisions.
Analysts said the benefits from the $37 billion merger of Germany's Daimler-Benz and No. 3 U.S. automaker Chrysler Corp. that formed the company in 1998 still haven't fully panned out.
"It needs a firm hand at the tiller and someone who is really responsible for making these various groups work together," John Lawson, an analyst at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney in London, told CNN. "It is one of the big failings of the group to date since the merger with Daimler and Chrysler."
The leadership change would only go as far as top managers, not board members, the source told CNN.com, and the focus would be on integrating the company's disparate divisions.
Chrysler has struggled in recent months amid stiff competition in the U.S. market and an exodus of managers. DaimlerChrysler recently named Dieter Zetsche to head the U.S. division.
The sluggishness in its U.S. market comes as Daimler's European business, built around Mercedes, is fresh off a record year. Its part-owned Japanese unit, Mitsubishi, according to news reports in Japan, will likely face job cuts amounting to about 15 percent of its workforce.
The source told CNN.com any cost-cutting at Mitsubishi will be separate from the restructuring charge at Chrysler.
Daimler (FDCX) stock rose 1.3 percent in afternoon Frankfurt trading to 56.90. 
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