The New York Times reported Saturday that General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra “flatly turned down” the merger offer, which was sent via email by Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne in March, according to the Reuters news service.
The email urged Barra to consider combining with GM because the industry needed further consolidation and their merged company would be able to save billions of dollars in costs and be an automotive giant, the news service said.
But no GM executives expressed any interest, Reuters said.
“Mr. Marchionne’s request for a meeting on the subject was flatly turned down,” the Times reported, citing unnamed sources the newspaper said had with knowledge of the situation.
GM is the world’s second-largest automaker behind Toyota; Fiat Chrysler is the seventh-largest.
Marchionne has a stellar reputation in world business and is credited with turning around both Fiat in 2006 and the ailing Chrysler, after the two companies aligned in 2009.
Marchionne plans to retire in 2019, Reuters said.
But Barra said in May that GM planned to continue its own plans for the future and had not even spoken with FiatChrysler, Reuters said.
In April, after FiatChrysler announced disappointing quarterly results, Marchionne called publicly for further consolidation in the auto industry and proposed working with Silicon Valley companies on innovations in vehicles and car ownership.
Marchione revealed May 9 that he met with management teams from Tesla Motors Inc. and Apple Computer on a recent visit to California, Reuters said.
