Stuttgart, Germany, May 15, 2007 — Nine years after they exchanged vows at a huge, lavishly choreographed news conference in London, Daimler and Chrysler signed their divorce papers Monday at a sparsely attended briefing in an auditorium at an aging Mercedes-Benz factory here.

As bookends, the two news conferences vividly illustrated the dashed dreams of the Daimler-Chrysler marriage.

At least for one partner, though, the sale of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management represents a potentially invigorating emancipation. Daimler, now largely free of its struggling American partner, can look ahead to what analysts generally agree is a promising future as a stand-alone maker of trucks and luxury cars.

“I’m very optimistic,” said Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley in London. “Daimler is the largest truck company in the world and one of the most valuable premium car companies in the world.”

The price of freedom for the soon-to-be-renamed Daimler A.G. is $677 million in cash — its out-of-pocket outlay in the $7.4 billion transaction — for Cerberus to take Chrysler off its hands. It is also shedding nearly $18 billion in health care and pension liabilities. For a merger once valued at $36 billion, it was a humiliating comedown.

Nor are Chrysler’s long-term prospects clear. Cerberus dispatched its chairman, John W. Snow, the former secretary of the Treasury, to Stuttgart to drum up excitement about Chrysler’s future and to reassure managers and workers that the investment firm is not going to turn Chrysler inside out.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/business/worldbusiness/15daimler.html?th&emc=th