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"Since being sold off by Ford in 2007, Aston Martin has been a company in the wilderness. That started to change late last year, when a technical partnership with Mercedes-Benz AMG was entered to build the next generation of Aston V8 engines. Now, rumors are beginning to swirl that this partnership could progress to a full-blown takeover of Aston Martin by Mercedes&amp;#039;s parent company, Daimler. Daimler AG Chairman Dieter Zetsche kept things vague when Autocar quoted him on the topic: &amp;quot;This is a fantastic brand, and we are willing to support its further development.&amp;quot; READ THIS: You can&amp;#039;t judge the Aston Martin Rapide S by the numbers We reached out to Aston Martin&amp;#039;s Matthew Clarke, who stated, &amp;quot;We have a technical partnership with Daimler AG and nothing else.&amp;quot; He went on to reiterate the terms of the partnership, which included Daimler receiving a five percent stake of non-voting shares in Aston Martin. So what would a potential buyout look like? There&amp;#039;s little doubt that Aston has been in a bit of a product lull lately. New engines and R&amp;amp;amp;D cash are needed, both of which Daimler can provide. Aston Martin&amp;#039;s current Kuwaiti owners, Adeem Investment and Investment Dar, could make a sizable profit from the sale, and it would give Mercedes its own upscale British proxy brand to go up against Bentley and Rolls-Royce. READ THIS: AMG and Aston Martin team up to build new V8s "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/news/a7399/mercedes-benz-aston-martin-buyout/>