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Fiat Chrysler says it did not know about Marchionne's illness

ZURICH/MILAN — Fiat Chrysler said it knew nothing about the medical condition of Sergio Marchionne after a Swiss hospital said on Thursday it had been treating the deceased chief executive for more than a year. "Due to medical privacy, the company had no knowledge of the facts relating to Mr. Marchionne's health," a Fiat Chrysler spokesman said. Questions have been raised about how long Marchionne, who died on Wednesday, was ill and how much the company knew before it made the situation public. Marchionne rescued Fiat and Chrysler from bankruptcy after taking the wheel of the Italian carmaker in 2004 and he multiplied Fiat's value 11 times through 14 years of canny dealmaking. He was due to step down at FCA in April next year. "The company was made aware that Mr. Marchionne had undergone shoulder surgery and released a statement about this," the spokesperson said. "On Friday, July 20, the company was made aware with no detail by Mr. Marchionne's family of the serious deterioration in Mr. Marchionne's condition and that as a result he would be unable to return to work. The company promptly took and announced the appropriate action the following day." Asked whether the scope of the statement included the board and the chairman, the company declined to comment. In emailed comments, Marchionne's family confirmed the companies had not been aware of his health conditions. "At the end of last week FCA was made aware Sergio Marchionne would no longer be able to return to work without mentioning any further details," the family said. The announcement of the death of Marchionne, 66, one of the auto industry's most tenacious and respected CEOs, drew tributes from rivals and tears from his closest colleagues on Wednesday. University Hospital Zurich said earlier on Thursday Marchionne had been treated for a serious illness for more than a year before his death. Marchionne had fallen gravely ill after what the company had described as shoulder surgery at a Zurich hospital. He was replaced as chief executive last weekend after Fiat Chrysler (FCA) said his condition had worsened. "Mr. Sergio Marchionne was a patient at USZ. Due to serious illness, he had been the recipient of recurring treatment for more than a year," the hospital said in a statement. "Although all the options offered by cutting-edge medicine were utilized, Mr.

Mike Manley and Louis Camilleri appointments confirmed after shareholder votes

AMSTERDAM – Fiat Chrysler shareholders held a meeting yesterday to officially vote on the appointments of Mike Manley as CEO of FCA and Louis Camilleri as the CEO of Ferrari. Manley and Camilleri were announced as the replacements for Sergio Marchionne following the former chief's sudden death. At the same time, FCA announced that it would place John Elkann in the role of Chairman. A minute-long moment of silence was held at the start of the meeting in honor of Marchionne. According to reports, 99 percent of shareholder votes were in favor of Manley's appointment at FCA, and 98 percent were in favor of Camilleri taking the CEO role at Ferrari. Manley said at the shareholder's meeting that he will announce his organizational plans for the automaker by the end of September. "When we learned Sergio Marchionne could not return to work the board decided to appoint Mike Manley, who was the only candidate," Chairman John Elkann said. The chairman added the decision was based on succession plans the board was working on with Marchionne for his planned departure in 2019. Of Camilleri's direction at Ferrari, Elkann said, "Sergio Marchionne strengthened the foundations of Ferrari, now we can build on that for the future, which will be a bright future."Reuters contributed to this report.Related Video: Image Credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Chrysler Fiat Sergio Marchionne FCA Mike Manley

Marchionne's FCA-GM merger might come after Ferrari spinoff

Sergio Marchionne is continuing to rumble about working out a merger with General Motors, but don't expect anything big to happen before at least early next year. That's because Marchionne would likely wait for the Ferrari spin-off to be complete before beginning his next big deal, according to Automotive News. While the Ferrari IPO on the New York Stock Exchange is expected in the coming weeks, that only concerns 10 percent of the shares. The remaining 80 percent of stock is being distributed among shareholders in 2016. Piero Ferrari holds the final 10 percent with no intention to sell. This strategy allows FCA to claim 80 percent of the Prancing Horse's profits in the automaker's 2015 financial results. According to Automotive News, the tactic has other advantages, as well. FCA would be flush with cash by waiting for the spin-off to be complete, and it would keep Ferrari separate if a GM merger actually happens. Marchionne thinks Ferrari could be valued at over $11 billion in the IPO, and it could make FCA $3.3 billion richer when complete. Marchionne believes a combined FCA/GM could sell 17 million vehicles a year globally and rake in $30 billion in earnings. In the CEO's opinion, the two automakers are wasting money by developing components to do the same things on their vehicles. Although, so far the General's top execs are rebuffing all of his advances.