Fiat takes over Chrysler – According to the French Les Echos, the operation is a victory for the great Turinese poker player (January 3 – La grande revanche de Marchionne, le « joueur de poker » de Turin), while for the Spanish El Pais, it is the new global wager of the Lingotto based carmaker (January 4 – Fiat redobla su apuesta global al culminar la absorción de Chrysler). The foreign press started 2014 by reporting on Fiat’s purchase of all of Chrysler’s shares. American papers, always interested in what happens in Detroit, reported of course on the takeover (January 1 su Wall Street Journal – Fiat to Get Full Control of Chrysler and Bloomberg Businessweek – Fiat to pay $3.65B for remaining Chrysler shares), but European (Le Monde, January 2 – Fiat prend le contrôle total de Chrysler) and Latin American (January 3 in Clarin – Fiat cerró la compra del 100% del gigante estadounidense Chrysler and January 1 in Valor Economico – Fiat vai se tornar dona de 100% da Chrysler) papers were also focused on the event.
Some papers ran articles on the approval of the stock market, with Fiat shares soaring (Wall Street Journal – Fiat Shares to Get a Bounce From Chrysler Deal; El Mundo – Las acciones de Fiat se disparan un 16% tras la compra de Chrysler). And others analyzed the operation, explaining how the group’s CEO Sergio Marchionne managed to avoid the obstacles to the merger of the two automotive manufacturers (Financial Times, January 2 – Marchionne clears big bump on Fiat-Chrysler’s road), obtaining a happy ending to the battle with the union fund Veba (Expansion, January 6 – Fiat-Chrysler: dura pugna con final feliz). Now, says the press, after paying a reasonable price for Chrysler (Bloomberg Businessweek, January 2 – Chrysler Goes in Full to Fiat at an Affordable Price), Fiat has to concentrate on improving its performance in Italy and Asia (New York Times, January 3 – Fiat’s Challenge Is to Improve Performance in Italy and Asia).
Tourism and fashion driving the recovery – Italy is expecting recovery this year, in part thanks to the contribution of key sectors such as tourism and fashion. This was explained by the Chinese daily Global Times, which underscored how the Bel Paese’s tourist industry is leaving the crisis behind, thanks to a growing demand from emerging economies (January 3 – Italian tourism out of economic crisis). And the foreign press continued to write about destinations to Italy. England’s The Times compared Tuscany and Provence, which it calls the most desirable destinations for European vacations (January 5 – Tuscany v Provence*) and then reported on hotels throughout the Peninsula (December 29 – Welcome to the village: Italy’s alberghi diffusi*). And, for those who want to stay in London, it wrote about the dishes of “La Cucina Asellina”, interviewing Michele Pais, owner of the restaurant that offers an Italian taste of sunshine in the British capital (December 20 – A taste of sunshine. Buon appetito!*).
Along with tourism, the foreign press wrote about fashion with the 85th edition of Pitti Uomo, which introduced a contemporary lifestyle (El Pais, January 7 – La 85 edición de Pitti Uomo apuesta por un estilo de vida contemporáneo) and the successes of Yoox, the Italian king of online sales, which has climbed to the peaks of the stock market and become a blue chip stock (El Pais, January 3 – El rey italiano de la venta ‘on line’).
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