Fiat Chrysler CEO Wanted to Merge with GM: Report

Fiat Chrysler‘s CEO first correspondence with GM’s CEO was to propose a merger.

According to a recent report from The New York Times, Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne sent a lengthy email to GM CEO Mary Barra discussing a potential merger between the two automakers. Marchionne, who has already taken Fiat and merged it with Chrysler, believes global automakers need to consolidate and save money in order to survive. Marchionne believes that a merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and GM would save billions of dollars while creating an automotive superpower.

SEE ALSO: Fiat Chrysler CEO Impressed by Elon Musk

Two people with knowledge of the incident said that Barra and GM executives along with board members had no interest in meeting with Marchionne, who was flatly turned down. A month later on April 29, Marchionne stunned Wall Street analysts during a routine analyst conference call by sharing his intense appeal for automakers to merge. He added that if traditional automakers weren’t interested, Marchionne would have no fear in turning to other interested parties including Google and Apple, both of which he recently visited. Marchionne also went on the record to say he was impressed with what Elon Musk has done with Tesla after meeting with the American electric automaker.

“I’ve always had this incredible sense of urgency,” Marchionne said in an interview with the The New York Times. “I’ve always had this desire not to let things fester and to really seize the moment, because it’s serendipity.”

[Source: The New York Times]

Discuss this story at our General Motors forum