Decision on Daimler name set for October 4

After selling Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler will hold a special shareholder meeting on October 4 in Berlin to decide on future company strategy and pick its future name, says Automotive News Europe’s sister publication Automobilwoche.

The German automaker had previously announced a fall meeting, but had not set a date.

A senior DaimlerChrysler manager told Automobilwoche at Mercedes' US plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, that Berlin was chosen over Stuttgart as the meeting site for organizational reasons and costs. DaimlerChrysler has held annual shareholder meetings at the Berlin Congress Center for several years.

Company management has proposed the name “Daimler AG” to distinguish it from Daimler-Benz used in the past.

Critics have heavily objected to the proposal for not using the names of both company founders, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz.

DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche wants to accommodate critics by changing the name of all the factories that manufacture Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks from Daimler plants to Mercedes plants.

At the meeting, Zetsche is expected to outline the company's future orientation.

In May, DaimlerChrysler agreed to sell an 80.1-percent stake of the Chrysler group to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, unwinding the 1998 merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler that failed to live up to expectations.