What was the name of the company formed by the 1998 merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler?

The company formed by the 1998 merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler was DaimlerChrysler.

The cross-border transaction combined Germany’s Daimler-Benz AG, best known for Mercedes-Benz, with the American Chrysler Corporation. Announced in 1998 and presented by executives as a “merger of equals,” it created DaimlerChrysler AG. The deal was structured primarily as a share exchange and was valued at roughly $38 billion, making it one of the largest international corporate combinations of its time.

The promised industrial logic was global scale: Daimler brought strong luxury-car and commercial-vehicle operations, while Chrysler had a major North American presence and a reputation for efficient product development. In practice, cultural differences, governance disputes, and disagreements over control made the partnership contentious. Critics later argued that Daimler had effectively acquired Chrysler rather than creating an equal partnership.

“DCX” is a related abbreviation associated with the company and its stock symbol, not the full company name. DaimlerChrysler sold most of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management in 2007, then changed its name to Daimler AG. The parent later became Mercedes-Benz Group AG.