Why Are These Men Smiling?

Photo by Alex Grimm/Reuters

Am I missing something? In 1998 Daimler bought Chrysler for $36 billion. Today Daimler is selling the bulk of its interest in Chrysler to the private Cerebus Capital Management group for $7 billion. (Could there be a better name for a private equity firm.)

So the ever-charming Daimler CEO, Dieter Zetsche, it would seem, has lost his company something in the neighborhood of $29 billion. Sounds like he'll be a prime candidate for a massive end of year bonus and raise. After all, Daimler must hang on to such men, there are so few of them.