CHRYSLER: LET'S START THE BIDDING!

Well, it's official: DaimlerChrysler chieftain Dieter Zetsche (photo), has  announced that the company had talked to potential buyers of its U.S. division. And this is one auction which you won't see being held in some circus tent (and ever think about how appropriate those tents are?) on SPEED with a bunch of sleaze-oid Hawaiian-shirted mid-life crisis idiots and their fat wives in the steaming, drunken audience holding up those 'buy' paddles to stave off the "not tonight" they're going to get later that evening in the hotel room ... No, this auction is (so far) between a 90-year old megalomaniac (who has many reasons to have a huge ego, so don't hold that against him), who has bought and sold MGM films (not the films ... the entire company) three times and made a huge profit each go-round, Canada's Magna Corporation and some things called The Blackstone Group and Cerberus, two of those mysterious "Wall Street Investment Firms" which keep their operations as secret as "The Man From U.N.C.L.E" used to do on '60s TV. Finally, as of today, Magna, a gigantic Canada-based parts supplier (which also manufactures entire cars and trucks under contract to OEMs) has also popped-in with their stated intention to own Chrysler. Perhaps the only positive thing to come so far in this auction for what was once one of the world's single greatest engineering companies is that it's now clear to everyone that Daimler's so-called "merger" with Chrysler in 1998 was, in reality, nothing short of a complete take-over, as critics (and Chrysler shareholders, with lawsuits against Daimler yet to be resolved) have charged. Right now, Kirk Kerkorian, through his Tracinda Corporation, is the man of the hour. His offer seems low, but at least someone has the cojones to get the ball rolling, so to speak.

The LOS ANGELES TIMES covered the DaimlerChrysler story in their April 6 editions. Interestingly, the newspaper itself and its parent company, Tribune Corporation, is also a public company in the process of being sold  to either a Chicago-based self-described "grave dancer" named Sam Zell (photo), known to the business world as a "real estate entrepreneur" or a "slum lord", depending on the source, or perhaps to one of several Los Angeles-based billionaires, including Eli Broad (real estate), Ronald Burkle (supermarkets) and David Geffen (show biz). It appears Zell has the upper hand and he might get away with buying Tribune, which owns several money-making newspapers, 26 TV stations (some in the same cities as their newspapers) and the Chicago Cubs, for a personal investment of only $350 million. His trick? Use the money from Tribune's employee retirement fund to finance the sale and take the company private. Then he can do as he will with it, which is what many people are afraid will happen to Chrysler if it too goes private. Whoever is the boss man can sell-off money-losing parts of the companies (in Chrysler's case, perhaps the Dodge or Jeep divisions, in Tribune's, maybe some of the smaller papers and TV outlets). So Tribune and all their employees certainly have their own problems, in some ways quite similar to those facing DaimlerChrysler and its far-flung employees.

The Detroit News reports that Kirk Kerkorian was born in 1917 in Fresno, Calif., to Armenian immigrants. He dropped out of school in eighth grade and became a skilled amateur boxer, fighting under the name of "Rifle Right Kerkorian." During World War II, he piloted de Havilland Mossquito airplanes over the north Atlantic as part of the Royal Air Force.

In 1947, in his first "big" deal, he paid $60,000 for TransInternational Airlines, a small air-charter service  mostly used by gamblers who flew from Los Angeles to Las Vega. He operated the airline until 1968 when he sold it for $104 million to Trans-American Corp.

According to the LA Times, the first time Kerkorian (photo) got involved in the auto business, he was a Los Angeles teenager. He bought old cars, refurbished them and resold them for a $10 or $15 profit.

Seventy-five years later, only the scale of Kerkorian's operation has changed.

The investor unveiled a $4.5-billion all-cash bid Thursday to buy Chrysler Group, the faltering No. 3 U.S.-based automaker, from its German parent, DaimlerChrysler. It was the latest effort by the billionaire to buy a stake in America's once-high-flying automotive industry.

How far has Chrysler Group fallen? Kerkorian's bid to take the company private was seen as credible by some on Wall Street, even though the offer is one-eighth of the $36 billion the then-Daimler-Benz paid for the American automaker in 1998.  Kerkorian's offer contains potential stumbling blocks such as a condition that Chrysler reach a "satisfactory" conclusion to what could be rocky contract talks with the United Auto Workers this fall.

Kerkorian has a good track record of seeing such possibilities when others do not. He made a $22.8-billion offer for Chrysler in the mid-1990s, teaming with former company Chairman Lee Iacocca. Kerkorian, who held a sizable stake in Chrysler, was rebuffed but eventually made $2.7 billion on his investment after the deal with Daimler-Benz.

In 2005 he began accumulating shares in a foundering General Motors Corp. Although stymied in his attempt to revamp the company, he still made some pocket change off the venture: about $100 million.

Kerkorian, who runs his empire out of nondescript, unmarked offices in Beverly Hills, has no interest in cars as such. To get around town, he chooses such middle-of-the-road vehicles as a Pontiac Firebird, a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Ford Taurus. His visits to Detroit are exceedingly rare.

He bought and sold Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. three times, making a profit each time. Kerkorian first visited Las Vegas during World War II, shortly before mobster Bugsy Siegel opened the Flamingo Hotel and essentially made the town a tourist destination. Kerkorian later bought the Flamingo and many other hotels and casinos.

MGM Grand, a public company of which Kerkorian owns 62%, is now the biggest single player in Vegas, with properties such as the Mirage, Bellagio and Mandalay Bay. Forbes magazine recently estimated his net worth at $15 billion. He's loyal, too; He ordered a fleet of stretched K-car limousines for MGM's Las Vegas high-roller's use when his friend Iacocca was running Chrysler for $1 a year and the K-car was the only "new" thing the company had to promote.

Analysts saw potential problems in two conditions Tracinda placed on its offer: a satisfactory new contract with the UAW and an agreement with DaimlerChrysler to share the unfunded pension and health care liabilities for Chrysler retirees, which have been estimated as approaching $20 billion. The offer letter didn't say what would constitute an acceptable labor contract or how the liabilities might be divided. (Photo - Chrysler 300 stretched limo with gull wing doors, similar to what Kerkorian had in his MGM Grand Hotel high-roller's fleet over 20 years ago when his friend Lee Iacocca supplied him with a fleet of stretched K-cars made to "be seen around town" being used by MGM Grand's special guests).

The offer is meaningless until those issues are resolved, said David Healy, an analyst at Burnham Securities Inc.

At least three groups have reportedly expressed interest in Chrysler, including Canadian auto parts supplier Magna International Inc., which has reportedly submitted a bid to buy the business for as much as $4.7 billion.

Cerberus Capital Management and a consortium of investors led by Blackstone Group each have reviewed Chrysler's finances and are expected to make bids. Spokesmen for the two firms declined to comment.

Estimates of Chrysler Group's value have ranged from zero, because of its liabilities, to $13.7 billion.

Even if it stalls, Kerkorian's bid — in particular, an offer to post a $100-million deposit in exchange for an exclusive 60-day negotiating period — may help the Chrysler sale process get going, one analyst said.