German automaker DaimlerChrysler is to be renamed simply Daimler AG on Thursday, reflecting the company's divestment of its troubled US unit Chrysler.
Shareholders meeting in Berlin are expected to approve the new name despite some scepticism and the fact that Daimler will still own almost 20 percent of the US car company.
“Daimler AG sounds cold and unfeeling. Daimler-Benz AG sounds familiar and warm,” said Paul Russmann, the spokesman for shareholders who oppose the move.
But recalling a name from the period before Daimler's tie-up with Chrysler in 1998 would seem like a return to a past that most would rather forget.
The company's former board led by Juergen Schrempp sought to transform it into a world giant, but the dream vanished and was given the coup de grace this year when Chrysler was sold to the investment group Cerberus.
Schrempp's predecessor and mentor Edzard Reuter had also tried without success to make Daimler a global powerhouse, diversifying the industrial group into the aerospace, financial and household goods sectors.
Daimler's current boss, Dieter Zetsche, wants to recenter the Stuttgart-based firm on its core business and on its two traditional strengths, Mercedes cars and lorries.
A new logo is to be presented after the shareholders' vote.
But Daimler is not casting Chrysler off completely, it will retain a 19.9-percent holding in the US company, which is believed to have lost money in the second quarter, and posted an annualised 6.1-percent sales drop in August.
As a privately held company, Chrysler is no longer required to issue public reports on its finances.
“For Daimler, a new start represents a big chance,” commented German auto sector expert Derdinand Dudenhoeffer.
He pointed to the group's chief German rival, BMW, which offloaded the British brand Rover eight years ago when it was making large losses.
The Bavarian automaker recentered its activities, invested in research and development and caught back up with the world's leading manufacturers of luxury cars, Dudenhoeffer said.
A similar effort now awaits Daimler, once at the cutting edge of progress in technical and security matters.
In the meantime, other serious rivals have emerged in Audi, the high-end division of German giant Volkswagen, and Lexus, its counterpart at Toyota.
Daimler has already evoked the possibility of periodic cooperation with BMW and the French group Peugeot to develop new products such as small engines.
Presented by Schrempp in 1998 as a “marriage made in heaven,” the tie-up with Chrysler has left both groups worse for wear.
A total of 40,000 Chrysler workers lost their jobs between 2000 and 2005, and Daimler's last decision in March before selling the US unit was to schedule 13,000 more cuts by 2009.
Mercedes workers also paid a price when quality and safety problems led to a restructuring in late 2005 and 14,500 posts were eliminated in production and administrative departments.
Some bosses made out better, however.
Chrysler's last boss, Canadian Tom Lasorda, and a another director are to get a bonus of several million euros (dollars) for quickly wrapping up its sale to Cerberus, according to press reports confirmed by the firm's works committee.
Critics have called the deals “a scandalous self-service.”
