“Fiat Chrysler’s CEO, seeking a partner to merge with, just said he’s open to an alliance with Apple,” Tim Higgins reports for Bloomberg.
“Fiat Chrysler’s CEO, seeking a partner to merge with, just said he’s open to an alliance with Apple,” Higgins reports. “‘I’ve always been intrigued by the notion of having technology disruptors show up in the marketplace and change the paradigm,’ Sergio Marchionne told analysts Wednesday as part of his pitch for why the automotive industry should consolidate. ‘If they show up and they are truly successful, with their cash piles and know-how, they could fundamentally hurt this industry.”
“The idea of an Apple tie-up isn’t as preposterous as it may sound,” Higgins reports. “Marchionne’s Fiat already has a relationship with Apple. Eddy Cue, the tech company’s head of Internet software and services, has sat on the Ferrari SpA board since 2012. Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri spent many years at General Motors, including as the executive in charge of the U.S. automaker’s relationship with Fiat between 2000 and 2005.”
More reasons in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Apple moves, the smart companies will figure out a way to work with them rather than be steamrolled.
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Tom Higgins is a fiction writer, he’s been on quite a streak this past 8 or 9 days. Fiat has always had problems, from recalls to expensive parts. I had a 1969 Fiat 124 Coupe and the alternator went out. That cost me one-weeks pay back in the day; $125.00.
You are comparing the fiat of today to the fiat of 1969.. 46 years ago??
I had a ’68. I loved it. Every time I see a current 500C I just want to drive it for a while. I only kept it a couple of years. Needed a bigger car, so I switched to a Beetle.
Nostalgia aside, I can’t see Apple corporate culture aligning with legacy Chrysler corporate culture. And why would Apple even think about chaining itself to that deadweight? MB gave up, now FIAT wants out. There are a lot of money sinks that would like to hook up to Apples money hose and try to drain it. A lot of money can cover up a lot of bad behavior.
Maybe Chrysler needs to seriously think about how it got to now and figure out if it’s not time to…
Interesting! 🙂
Apple can pretty much pick it’s partners these days, not so much the other way around. I think we’ll see a lot of interested hands going up trying to get Apple’s attention.
I think Chrysler is more interested in Apple’s Billion$. 🖖😀⌚️
Sergio Marchionne: “Did I mention their cash pile? Because if I didn’t mention their cash pile, I just wanted to make sure I mentioned their cash pile. Cash pile.”
Sergio Marchionne’s comments about working with Apple are nice. But an Apple-Chrysler car? Really?
A Crapple?
Chrapple (you left out the “h”)
Sounds like shrapnel! 🖖😀⌚️
That’s even better.
Although I thought owners called them Cryslers after they bought them.
F(ix)I(t)A(gain)T(ony)
and Chrysler with their Audi wannabe styling cue knockoffs, chunky boy racer mobiles and exploding fake (as in secretary version- not offroad) Jeeps.
No thanks
Wait a minute. “chunky boy racer mobiles”? Surely you’re not referring to the Charger are you? Chunky? in that it seats four very comfortably? “Boy”, like 707HP is in the adolescent catagory?
Chunky, Clunky Boy Racer Mobiles.
AKA Generic Chrysler Cop Cars
The Charger was a wannabe in the day and is still ugly, unreliable and will depreciate faster than a Chevy- another crapmobile.
All the cops drive are these ugly things and Chevy SUVs.
Why would Apple jumping into the car industry “fundamentally hurt” the industry? If Apple-FiatChrysler were successful, they would be copied by the other automakers and we all would enjoy better cars, likely made better and with higher profit margins for the auto makers. Those automakers who didn’t get on board with the new technologies would fade away. Sounds like a winner to me.
the problems with mergers is ‘culture’ clash.
very few companies have Apple’s culture, not even Google.
I’ll rather live in Brazil than in china but here’s what the Foxconn chief said about the troubles of the Apple factory in Brazil where a factory that is supposed to have 100,000 workers has only 10,000 and falling: ” Every time they hear ‘soccer!’ they stop work “.
That’s a tough one to live up to, but look at the bright side, unlike the population of america the population of Brazil and China doesn’t stop every time they hear ‘war’ or ‘torture’.
I don’t see Apple buying a car company, and culture clash would be one of the reasons. It would be much more likely for Apple to contract out manufacturing to a car company, thus boosting the car company’s bottom line with contract assembly but without the attendant costs of warranty service, marketing, etc.
I would hope Apple has more intelligence than to merge or even affiliate with Chrysler. They are an albatross that only brought down the quality of their other victims: Daimler and Fiat.
Man, what’s with you guys hitting on Chrysler so much? You need to go drive one. My 2012 Charger is by far the best car I’ve ever owned (and I’ve owned a lot through the years). In 62000 miles I’ve been to the shop once, and that was for a minor recall. And 0-to-60 in 5 seconds is just icing on the cake.
Chrysler isn’t rated as a much of a car manufacturer here in the UK. There is a large Chrysler dealership near me, but you don’t see many Chryslers around. The build quality simply isn’t up to the standards that we have come to expect from European and Japanese manufacturers. I had one out on a weekend trial and returned it on the Saturday morning as I knew that I would not be buying it.
Apple’s not going to buy car factories and build cars. Fiat Chrysler would be a good fit to be the equivalent of Foxconn and Pegatron (contract manufacturers for iPhone). They are not the largest (and seem somewhat desperate), so Apple can have “appropriate” influence in the design and manufacturing process. Yet they are large enough to have a worldwide presence with sufficient production capacity.
There’s an interesting point. Meanwhile, we’re still speculating about a mere rumor. It’s fascinating to me that some CEO is jumping on a rumor, hoping it’s real, hoping for a seat in the, ahem, car. Surreal.
I see that the lone trollbot and it’s equally lonely handler is busy at their mindless task. Today’s goal is to keep the comments of certain posters at precisely 3 stars.
Now that everyone knows almost all the hysterical down-voting is from ONE despondent loser and a robot sidekick (and not an army of Apple-haters), it sort of defeats the purpose. It shows there are very few (actual) irrational Apple-haters left; it takes “automation” to do a (not very convincing) job keeping up that fiction. And it’s truly an embarrassment for Apple’s competitors, like Samsung, Google, and Microsoft; speculation will start that THEY are behind it. I just started it… 🙂
I’m such an embarrassment… 🙁 But I have a job to do.
Oh well at least it’s a change from ‘we have been in the business of making cars for a century computer boys aren’t just going to come in and make a ……. Blah blah blah’.
I agree that it’s a much more mature response than from most car manufacturers, but I simply don’t see Apple partnering with any car manufacturer.
If Apple get into the car business, the product will be so different and built so differently that conventional car manufacturers will not be able to add anything worthwhile to the process. More than that, such a partnership would be likely to make things harder because they would hold Apple back.
Apple didn’t need input from other computer manufacturers to make the early Apple II and the Mac. They didn’t need to partner with others to make the iPhone or iPad. They won’t need to with an Apple car either.
Last thing Apple needs is to partner up with piece of shit Chrysler.
This is Tim Higgins in abstract speculation mode yet-again. Bleh. 😛
Meanwhile: WHAT Apple car? We’re talking about Chrysler wanting to partner with a mere RUMOR. Sheesh.
Sergio Marchionne is one of the smartest CEOs around, in my opinion this could be a winner.
The only thing that could be even stupider than Ford crawling into bed with Microdork would be Apple allowing itself to be screwed by that Fiat Chrysler turd.