"Wanna go for a merge?"
Long distance relationship... Europe's Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler are living it. The pair is reportedly merging for $48.8B to create the 4th biggest car company on Earth. Peugeot is French, Fiat is Italian, and Chrysler is American. The 3 surprises from studying this thing abroad:
This fulfills a dream... Former CEO Sergio Marchionne’s dream. The godfather of modern automobile strategy passed away last year, but he called shotgun on merging whenever he could:
If you ain’t merging, you’re dying... For years, Sergio called on the car industry to consolidate. He predicted and watched car companies go bankrupt in the '08-'09 Recession. He recognized that people stop buying cars mid-recession, so a merged "team" of car companies can better survive. Now Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler can own 1/4 of the European car market. Together.