The Drambuie Man has a terrific post for those interested in South Korean business news. In it, he discussed Hynix’s turnaround and Hyundai’s souring relationship with DaimlerChrysler. On Hyundai, he writes:
Lastly I want to say a few words on Hyundai Motor, simply “Who’s your daddy?”. The answer to that it is getting abundantly clear is DaimlerChrysler. Daimler made a strategic investment four years ago in Hyundai. This was largely part of squabble at the top at the time, and the efforts to break off profitable parts of the sinking ship that was Hyundai conglomerate. I also thought it had something to do with warming Korean/German relations at the time (it was odd how the investment was made without the typical nationalist hand wringing).
Since then, Hyundai has only managed to do one thing with Daimler, piss them off. In good faith many negotiations were started. There were, and still are, talks of joint ventures on small cars, luxury cars, and trucks. Every time these talks were held, Hyundai had the infuriating habit of announcing to the world their “Joint Venture” with Daimler, to the chagrin of its partner and their security needs. In the end, nothing really came of such talks and announcements. To give you an idea where this was heading look at this press release. Note that Daimler and Mitsubishi have comments, Hyundai barely gets a mention. This good faith in this relationship ended a long time ago. But, like a wife with a cheating husband, Hyundai was the last one to know. The turning point came when Dailmer said that it would make its Benz’s for Asia itself in China (pretty much anyway, the Chinese “partner” is just a empty shell). This was a shock for some reason to Hyundai, who though they all along would be entrusted with the Benz manufacturing tradition in Asia. Feeling the shaft the “owner” of Hyundai is now trying to cover his ass.
Read the entire post - it’s fascinating. Also of interest is his post on the Joongang. Money shot:
On a lighter side, the JoongAng not only has the same propaganda as the Rohdong Shinmum, but the same hypocracy and double talk. On one page of my paper is this glossy endorsement of the BMW 530i . By my estmate Ms. Cho, the author, problay netted about 300,000 won from the Beammer people for her effort. I turned the page away from Ms. Cho’s paid literary orgasm over her stickshift, to the opinon page. The headline for the op-ed page was hilariously and hypocraticly entited “The Cycle of Corruption Must End”. Is it just me or is it double-over-laughing-rolling-in-the-streets hilarious that as a courrpt group of people like Korean newspaper men think they can take the moral highground all of a sudden?
It would be hilarious if the irony weren’t so stinging.
