With its renaming as the mercedes-benz group, carmaker daimler is on the verge of a historic day and a new start, according to group CEO ola kallenius. From Saturday, the listed company will be known by its new name – on this day 136 years ago, the German car inventor Carl Benz filed the first patent for a motor car. in the same year, gottlieb daimler invented a first automobile.
the companies of the two technology pioneers were merged to form daimler AG, which has been split into a car and a truck manufacturer since the end of last year. Soon it will no longer be "I work for Daimler, I work for Mercedes Benz", said kallenius. Legally, the change of name is effective as of 1. February.
Turning away from the mixed-product style
The separation into pure-play manufacturers of luxury cars on the one hand and commercial vehicles on the other is intended to increase stock market value. Because investors like "pure play and punish mixed-product countries with a conglomerate discount on the stock market price.
"The goal is to unlock the value potential of the company", kallenius said. The stock market value of currently around 77 billion euros is much lower than that of comparable tech and luxury manufacturers.
The Group CEO intends to achieve this by consistently implementing the strategy of switching to electric cars, digital services and autonomous driving, and by increasing profitability. This should stimulate the imagination of shareholders and make them reach for mercedes shares.
US electric car maker tesla sets the standard here. He is worth more than ten times as much on the stock market with less than half as many cars sold. mercedes-benz and BMW are about the same size in terms of sales.
A girl named mercedes
Daimler AG had been the name of the dax group since 2007, when the renaming marked the end of the unsuccessful episode with the U.S. carmaker chrysler, which was taken over in 1998, and the name daimler-chrysler disappeared from the stock exchange list. Previously, daimler-benz AG, founded in 1926, bore its two founding fathers gottlieb daimler and carl benz in its name. A mercedes-benz AG was founded for the first time as a passenger car subsidiary in 1989.
The mercedes-benz brand has been around for almost 100 years. It was founded in 1926 with the merger of the two predecessor companies, the daimler-motoren-gesellschaft (DMG) in stuttgart, founded by gottlieb daimler, and the mannheim-based automaker benz, founded by carl benz& cie to daimler-benz AG, brought to life.
Previously, DMG used the name "Mercedes" from the beginning of the century as a brand. It goes back to the daughter of businessman and diplomat emil jellinek, mercedes jellinek, born in vienna in 1889. automobile fan jellinek sold daimler vehicles made by DMG in nice from 1898 onwards.
first mercedes model delivered in 1900
The Austro-Hungarian motor racing enthusiast made his daughter the car’s namesake when he entered a daimler phoenix in the 1899 Nice race under the name "monsieur mercedes logs on. A DMG factory driver wins the Tour of southern France but is killed in a race a year later. As a consequence of the accident, jellinek urged DMG to develop a more powerful and safer car.
in december 1900, the swabians deliver the very first mercedes model to the car dealer, the brand was registered in 1902. The three-pointed star is a legacy of gottlieb daimler. The three points symbolized the use of daimler engines in cars, ships and aviation.
Separation into truck builder and luxury car manufacturer
The split of the daimler group into the truck manufacturer daimler truck and the carmaker mercedes-benz also means a turning point for employees. The roots of the company reach back to their everyday language: while the swabians "at the daimler create, the badeners work at benz.
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The attractiveness of the brand with the star, which market researchers rate as one of the most valuable in the world, should also attract qualified employees, especially in the promising field of software. "We are finding very good people who are enthusiastic about leading this fascinating automotive product into the future," he said, stressed the mercedes boss.