USA: INVESTOR KIRK KERKORIAN ANNOUNCES HE WILL NOT SETTLE WITH DAIMLERCHRYSLER THE COMPANY HE ALLEGES DEFRAUDED HIM

Record ID: 646895

  • Title: USA: INVESTOR KIRK KERKORIAN ANNOUNCES HE WILL NOT SETTLE WITH DAIMLERCHRYSLER THE COMPANY HE ALLEGES DEFRAUDED HIM
  • Date: 5th December 2003
  • Summary: (W8) WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 3, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. MV INVESTOR KIRK KERKORIAN ARRIVES AT U.S. DISTRICT COURT; SLV EXTERIORS OF U.S. DISTRICT COURT; SCU COURT SKETCH OF KERKORIAN TESTIFYING (4 SHOTS) 0.55 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) KERKORIAN SAYING "I was told by my counsel that they got a call from Stuttgart, Germany saying that if we would call them, we would go into settlement talks. Let me go on the record, I will never entertain settlement talks with Daimler. We are going to trial. We will lose it or win it. This is not about money. It's about deceit and fraud on Daimler's part." 1.24 3. MV MEDIA; SCU HAN TJAN, CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR DAIMLERCHRYSLER LISTENING AS REPORTER ASKS ABOUT KERKORIAN"S COMMENTS REGARDING DAIMLER DISCUSSING SETTLEMENT TALKS 1.28 4. SOUNDBITE) (English) TJAN SAYING "I have no idea where that came from. There have some articles previously in the last few days that there are some moves for discussions. I can tell you from the DaimlerChrysler saide that there are no moves for any settlement or discussions." 1.45 5. MV KERKORIAN LEAD LAWYER TERRY CHRISTENSEN SPEAKING TO REPORTERS 1.49 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHRISTENSEN SAYING "This lawsuit is about Juergen Schrempp lying to 100,000 shareholders and Mr. Kerkorian." 2.03 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 20th December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVAA346F7NF4JOR9WBGVMG88LSKW
  • Story Text: Investor Kirk Kerkorian announces he will not settle
    with DaimlerChrysler, the auto company he alleges defrauded
    him out of billions of dollars.

    Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian angrily ruled
    out settlement talks with Daimler Chrysler on Wednesday as
    he left the courtroom where he is suing the company over
    terms of the 1998 link-up between Daimler-Benz and Chrysler.

    "I will never entertain settlement talks with Daimler,"
    Kerkorian said to reporters.

    "We are going to trial," he said. "We will lose it or
    win it. This is not about money. It's about deceit and
    fraud on Daimler's part."
    Kerkorian spoke after his second day on the witness
    stand in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. In a
    civil lawsuit, the 86-year-old Las Vegas casino operator is
    seeking to prove that what Daimler-Benz pitched as a
    "merger of equals" was really a secret German takeover of
    the No. 3 U.S. automaker.

    Kerkorian said he had been told by his attorneys that a
    call had been received from DaimlerChrysler headquarters in
    Stuttgart, Germany, offering settlement talks. But a
    DaimlerChrysler spokesman denied that, and Kerkorian lead
    lawyer Terry Christensen also rejected any possible
    settlement out of hand.

    The courtroom drama came hours after Canadian-born
    James Holden, the last non-German executive to head
    Chrysler before his ouster as group president in November
    2000, appeared to deal a serious blow to Kerkorian by
    testifying that he backed the deal creating DaimlerChrysler
    and considered it fair.

    Kerkorian, Chrysler's largest shareholder at the time
    of the deal, is demanding more than $1 billion in
    compensatory damages on grounds that Daimler hid its true
    intentions in order to avoid paying a higher premium for
    Chrysler's shares.

    DaimlerChrysler has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

    But Kerkorian says he was duped into believing that the
    merger would create two semi-independent companies with
    headquarters in Germany and Michigan.

    Kerkorian's lawsuit was filed after Schrempp told The
    Financial Times in October 2000 that he had always meant to
    make Chrysler a mere division of a new global automotive
    giant.

    DaimlerChrysler, which has lost two-thirds of its
    market value since the merger deal was announced, settled a
    parallel lawsuit with a separate group of former investors
    for $300 million in August.

    Holden was a hand-picked successor of Robert Eaton, who
    was Chrysler's chairman when Schrempp closed the deal that
    he hailed as a "marriage made in heaven."
    Eaton, once listed as co-CEO of the new
    DaimlerChrysler, took early retirement in 2000 and Holden
    was replaced not long after that by former Daimler
    executive Dieter Zetsche as German managers tightened their
    control over a company long considered an American
    industrial icon.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register