that puts the Italian company in a position to gain financial resources from its US unit to help turn around unprofitable European operations. Marchionne has sought since taking the helm at Fiat in 2004 to combine the company with another carmaker to challenge Toyota and the Volkswagen Group in sales. Marchionne has been the CEO of both Fiat and the Chrysler Group since 2009. He said: “In the life of every major organisation and its people, there are defining moments that go down in the history books. For Fiat and Chrysler, the agreement just reached with the VEBA is clearly one of those moments.” “The unified ownership structure will now allow us to fully execute our vision of creating a global automaker that is truly unique in terms of mix of experience, perspective and know-how, a solid and open organisation that will ensure all employees a challenging and rewarding environment.” Fiat first started buying Chrysler stock in June 2009 as part of a US Government bailout of the carmaker, which was losing as much as US$100 million a day at the time. GM was also bailed out. Ford received some government help but mostly plotted its own course through the GFC.