Daimler buys Chrysler for 40B, sells it for 7.4Billion

The Business world is amazing and full of contradictions. In 1998 Daimler the German giant automaker bought the number 3 American automaker for a record 40 billion dollars, today, 05/14/2007, Daimler is selling it for 7.4 billion dollars. The chairman of Mercedes-Benz is cheering the deal and saying that because of their passion for great cars, Daimler did what it did. I'm trying to find words to describe a deal like this which obviously was a flop for Daimler and maybe for Chrysler. I'm not an economist but it amazes me to try to do the mathematics here. No CEO should be allowed to stay in office if they have done a deal like this. Even if the deal was in stocks or even if the wizards of accounting have used what politically correct is called legitimate accounting maneuvers. My four years old daughter, God bless her, would have looked at me as if I'm an idiot if I have mentioned Mercedes news to her. Daimler was, no doubt, brutish in making the buy, now we know, but brutish in selling it is still out there for the jury to decide.