Daimler Moves to Oust Shareholder Suits

DaimlerChrysler said it has filed motions to dismiss lawsuits by financier Kirk Kerkorian and other shareholders who allege they were misled by statements calling the 1998 deal that created the auto maker a “merger of equals.”

The motions, filed at the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., said the lawsuits were without merit.

“Simply, these lawsuits would appear to be opportunistic vehicles being used by well-represented, sophisticated investors and class-action lawyers in a thinly-veiled attempt to rewrite history,” the statement said.

Kerkorian, once the firm’s third-largest shareholder, filed the suit in November, weeks after DaimlerChrysler Chief Executive Juergen Schrempp suggested in an interview that the 1998 “merger of equals” between Daimler and Chrysler Corp. was actually a takeover. DaimlerChrysler shares closed down $2.90 at $49.10 on the New York Stock Exchange.