Chrysler's swift passage through about five weeks of bankruptcy proceedings was helped by the involvement of the Obama administration's auto task force, which provided billions in financing and helped negotiate a deal with the company's stakeholders.
Under the agreement brokered in the days leading up to Chrysler's Chapter 11 filing, Fiat will receive up to a 35 percent stake in the automaker in exchange for sharing the technology Chrysler needs to create smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.
The United Auto Workers union will get a 55 percent stake that will be used to fund its retiree health care obligations, while the U.S. and Canadian governments will receive a combined 10 percent stake. Fiat would get 20 percent, with the possibility of up to 35 percent.
Meanwhile, the automaker's secured debtholders would get $2 billion in cash, or about 29 cents on the dollar, for their combined $6.9 billion in debt. Some debtholders, including the Indiana funds, balked at the deal, saying as secured lenders they deserved more. The funds also challenged the constitutionality of the Treasury Department's use of money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to supply Chrysler's bankruptcy protection financing. They say TARP was earmarked for the financial industry and diverted to the auto industry without Congressional authority.
There's some rich irony for all the pro-union folks on the board. 
