"You have to be here, and you have to be here in a serious way, " Dieter Zetsche, Daimler Chrysler CEO, told CNN.
Mr Mittal says he has received similar overtures from such firms as Daimler-Chrysler and Whirlpool, which makes household appliances.
If a deal between Daimler and Chrysler accelerates the demise of the national car company, that will be welcome.
The fact that the merged Daimler-Chrysler intends to have two chief executives and two head offices is a promise of conflict.
In May 2007 Daimler sold Chrysler to Cerberus, a private-equity firm, which struggled to revive it in the face of the gathering economic storm.
The trick of Daimler and Chrysler, and of the mergers to come, will be to throw out the nationalism of car making, while keeping its nationality.
This after news earlier this year that Daimler-Chrysler, which had made a sizable investment in Iran just within the last five years, was pulling itself out of that country.
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There have been exceptions, including a 2006 decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Detroit allowing the so-called Daffin class action to proceed over Ford minivans alleged to have sticky throttles. (Ford settled.) But in cases involving Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Daimler-Chrysler cars, and Canon digital cameras, courts have refused to hold manufacturers liable for what consumers fear might happen to their products.
Daimler, which effectively had to pay Cerberus to take its 80.1% Chrysler stake in 2007 and which sparred with the private equity firm late last year about the true value of its remaining holding, may consider selling the rest of its stake to Fiat, meaning that the Italian carmaker would get 20.0% of its Chrysler stake from Daimler and 15.0% from Cerberus.
When they merged, Daimler-Benz and Chrysler said that together they would create tremendous synergies.
The 1998 takeover of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz was a disaster in its first six years.
Then came the takeover of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz and the all-but-acquisition of Nissan by Renault last year.
The merger of Chrysler and Daimler-Benz was motivated by the enormous excess auto capacity -- worldwide, probably 20 million units.
Watch what happens to the car companies that imitate Daimler-Benz and Chrysler.
The roadster is the first child of the merger five years ago between Chrysler and Daimler-Benz--and a test of whether the promised synergies work.
Having joined Chrysler, Daimler could make its next acquisition in Japan.
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The good news is that Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Porsche and Volkswagen are all supporting the combo plug, so that bodes well for the future of U.S.-Europe compatibility.
The problem, these sources say, is that nine years after the marriage between Daimler-Benz and Chrysler, mid-level managers at Mercedes are still resisting any collaboration that could sully the luxury brand's image.
Key customers include truck and industrial vehicle makers such as PACCAR, Volvo Trucks North America, Daimler Trucks North America, Chrysler and Komatsu.
One other automaker that would have been mentioned in the same breath as Ford and GM, until its merger with Daimler-Benz, is Chrysler.
Occasionally the threat lay in that buzzword of today, globalisation, and its concomitant demand for greater scale: Chrysler merged with Daimler-Benz because, even as number three in the world's largest car market, it was too small to prosper alone.
Daimler's 1998 merger with Chrysler also collapsed in 2007, amid much disgruntlement in Detroit about the-then chief executive Juergen Schrempp's domineering attitude that gave the impression that Chrysler had been an acquisition for the German group.
Led by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian , the shareholders claim Daimler-Benz misrepresented the merger of Chrysler as a "merger of equals" in 1998.
He's already bid unsuccessfully to take over Chrysler prior to its spinoff from Daimler.
In essence, it cost Daimler that much to get Cerberus to take Chrysler (and Chrysler's health care liabilities) off its hands.
Worldwide, Magna is already Chrysler's top supplier and Daimler's No. 2.
Recently, Cerberus said it was in talks with Germany's Daimler to acquire the 18.1% of Chrysler it doesn't own.
The risk is that Fiat will stumble, as Germany's Daimler did during its nine unhappy years of owning Chrysler.
Automakers affected by the new rule would include BMW, Chrysler, General Motors, Daimler, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Toyota and Volkswagen.
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