Investors want answers about Marchionne’s final days
Mon, Jul 30 2018
Fiat Chrysler's stock is down 12 percent in both Italy and on the New York Stock Exchange since the announcement of Marchionne's death.
University Hospital Zurich last week issued a statement saying that Marchionne, who died July 25 while recovering from an unspecified should surgery, had been treated for more than a year for a serious illness that it didn't define. Marchionne's family told Reuters the companies hadn't been aware of his health conditions.
The Italian business website Lettera 43 reported July 5, and FCA later confirmed, that Marchionne had undergone shoulder surgery in a Swiss hospital. But the company later denied a July 20 report by the website that Fiat Chairman John Elkann planned to meet with company leaders to divide Marchionne's responsibilities.
Yet the FCA board indeed met on July 21 and chose Mike Manley, who had formerly overseen the Jeep and Ram brands, to succeed Marchionne as CEO. The company on July 25 published a brief statement acknowledging the former CEO's death. "Unfortunately, what we feared has come to pass. Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone," Elkann said in the statement.
Marchionne told no one outside his inner circle — reportedly not even Elkann — that he was seriously ill. His partner, Manuela Battezzato, who works in Fiat's press department, told Bloomberg that Marchionne's family didn't tell the company about his health condition. The famously hard-working CEO, who had quit smoking about a year ago, had also reportedly stopped responding to messages and calls from some advisors since the end of June.
People close to him told Bloomberg that Marchionne died from complications following the shoulder surgery, including two cardiac arrests.
- Image Credit: Ferrari flags hang at half-staff at the Hungarian Grand Prix / Getty
- Chrysler
- Fiat
- Sergio Marchionne
By Sven Gustafson
See also: Fiat Chrysler says it did not know about Marchionne's illness, Fiat Chrysler says it did not know about Marchionne's illness, UPDATED: ‘The auto industry has lost a true giant’.