With turmoil in Brazil and China, Mercedes adds name to Atlanta stadium - Philly.com
The global giant said it was paying to put the name Mercedes-Benz on a new football stadium in Atlanta, cutting jobs in Brazil, and still hoping for growth in sales of lucrative brands in China. Mercedes-Benz division, which is moving its headquarters from Montvale, N. J. , to Atlanta, marked that change with a 27-year-deal on naming rights for the new stadium that will be the home of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons. The odd part is that Mercedes-Benz already has its name on the Superdome in New Orleans, home to the Saints, an NFC South division rival of the Falcons. "We're going to deliver on that contract in good faith," Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Steve Cannon said Monday in an interview in Atlanta, where the German luxury carmaker was unveiled as the naming-rights sponsor of the city's new $1. 5 billion downtown... There's room enough for us to play that deal through to its logical conclusion and then we'll evaluate it. ". Neither the Falcons nor Mercedes disclosed the cost of the naming-rights deal. As for Brazil, Daimler AG said it will eliminate 1,500 jobs at its truck-making division as demand for commercial vehicles in the country shows no sign of recovery. Cutting about 13 percent of its workforce in Brazil became inevitable after industrywide truck sales in South America's largest economy plunged 44 percent. Source: www.philly.com
