7 May 1998: Daimler-Benz and Chrysler announce a merger of equals

On May 7, 1998 Daimler-Benz and Chrysler announced a roughly $36 billion combination billed as a merger of equals. It quickly became clear Stuttgart was in charge, and the cultures clashed. Chrysler struggled, the expected savings largely failed to appear, and in 2007 Daimler sold most of Chrysler to private equity firm Cerberus for a small fraction of what it had paid. It became a business school cautionary tale.

The lesson: Mergers of equals rarely are; most big deals destroy value for the buyer's shareholders.