DaimlerChrysler to Acquire Truck Maker

DaimlerChrysler’s Freightliner unit agreed to acquire Canadian heavy-duty truck maker Western Star Trucks Holdings Ltd. in a deal worth $456 million, the companies said. Rumors about Freight liner’s interest in Western Star had run rampant since late June, when the British Columbia-based company said it had been approached by an unnamed suitor. Western Star makes heavy-duty trucks for international sale at plants in Kelowna and North Charleston, S.C. It produces mass-transit buses for North America through its Orion subsidiary in Mississauga, Canada, and Oriskany, N.Y. Freightliner had annual revenue of $11 billion and expects this deal to add between $1 billion and $1.4 billion.