
Sergio Marchionne’s five-year effort to merge Fiat S.p.A. and Chrysler Group culminated in a Florida beach town, where the workaholic CEO spent hours nailing a deal that was announced New Year’s Day.

Sergio Marchionne’s five-year effort to merge Fiat S.p.A. and Chrysler Group culminated in a Florida beach town, where the workaholic CEO spent hours nailing a deal that was announced New Year’s Day.

Fiat plans to invest as much as €9 billion on new models to end European losses in three years and revive nearly empty Italian factories, two people familiar with the matter said.

Fiat is set to gain the upper hand in negotiations to buy a health-care trust’s holding in Chrysler Group if the final value for the U.S. carmaker remains around the level currently being discussed.

Fiat Group, Chrysler Group’s Italian parent company, has acquired the remaining half of VM Motori from General Motors for 34.1 million euros ($47.1 million).

He has been portrayed as the wild child of Italy’s billionaire Agnelli family: a globe-trotting jet-setter who cavorts with fashion models, drives ultrafast cars and collects tattoos.