Apr 30, 2009 15:37 ET

Chrysler Files for U.S. Bankruptcy Court Protection with 3rd Largest Employee Count for a Corporate Bankruptcy, according to BankruptcyData.com

BOSTON --(Business Wire)-- Apr 30, 2009 BankruptcyData.com reports that Chrysler LLC has filed for Chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York. The Company is represented by Corrine Ball of Jones Day. According to BankruptcyProfessional.com, since 1990, Jones Day has served as petitioning counsel for 7 of the nearly 300 public company bankruptcies listing a pre-petition asset figure of $1 billion or more.

According to its corporate Website, Walter Chrysler had his start in the automotive industry in 1912 after joining General Motors (GM). He left GM in 1919, beginning his work as the modern day equivalent of a crisis manager at Maxwell Motor, which he led back to financial viability and later renamed Chrysler Corporation.

Chrysler has indicated that it maintains approximately 100,000 employees. That figure makes it the third largest corporate employer to seek refuge with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court since 1980, according to BankruptcyData.com. The largest and second largest employee counts belong to Kmart Corporation and Delphi Corporation (DPHIQ), respectively.

In addition to its high employee and asset count, Chrysler’s filing is newsworthy in another respect. George Putnam, III explains, “The Chrysler bankruptcy could be particularly interesting because of the government involvement. The Obama Administration may have a few things to learn about the bankruptcy process.”

Because Chrysler’s common stock is not publicly traded, the Company is not required to file Annual Reports with the SEC—making a precise pre-petition asset count unattainable. According to BankruptcyData.com, the largest historic automotive bankruptcies and their respective asset counts are as follows: Delphi Corporation – DPHIQ ($16.6 billion), Federal-Mogul Corporation - FDML ($10.2 billion), Dana Corporation – DAN ($9.1 billion) and ANC Rental Corp. ($6.5 billion).

BankruptcyData.com and BankruptcyProfessional.com—both published by New Generation Research, Inc.—provide news, creditor and professional information, reorganization details and more for publicly-traded companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection since 1980. Reference our Research Center for in-depth historic analysis of the largest company bankruptcy filings.

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