Detroit Auto Companies Ownership

Recent coverage of the acquisition of Chrysler Group by Cerberus Capital has in both the NY Times and Detroit News said something like, "Never before has one of [the Detroit majors] been outside the control of another major automotive company" (Detroit News).
That is unfortunately grossly inaccurate.
The most important contradiction is DuPont's control of GM's from WWI until the Fifties. DuPont's influence over GM was sufficiently egregious that it got the attention of the US Department of Justice in the late 40's, brought an adverse decision by the US Supreme Court in the late Fifties and forced divestiture of DuPont's GM stock in 1961.
Even a cursory reading of Alfred P. Sloan's "My Years with General Motors" reveals abundant references to the importance of DuPont's financial and managerial support of GM in the Durant and post-Durant era. Sloan made no bones about it, and was in fact proud of what DuPont accomplished for GM and what GM accomplished for DuPont.
DuPont's website acknowledges the relationship.
It is revisionism, ignorance or an unfortunate desire to make more of the Cerberus acquisition -- which doesn't need to restate history to establish its significance -- than actually exists to suggest that non-automotive control of a major Detroit player is an isolated instance.
Perhaps even more significant is Curtiss-Wright's control of Studebaker-Packard during the final days of that Detroit legend's history. Not only is it analogous to Cerberus's acquisition of struggling Chrysler but at the time Studebaker-Packard was U.S. distributor of Mercedes-Benz automobiles.
How soon we forget.

Rick Carey