Equity firm Cerberus achieves results with cuts

WASHINGTON POST
In more than a decade of buying into down-and-out companies across three continents, Cerberus Capital Management has applied a similar strategy to most of its targets: cut, cut and cut some more.
Now Chrysler is set to join a list of acquisitions that ranges from long-haul trucker Fruehauf to Air Canada to risqu & eacute; lingerie maker Frederick's of Hollywood. Many of those companies have experienced turnarounds under Cerberus' slashing ways, but not without pain.
New York's Cerberus bought more than 600 struggling Albertsons supermarkets last year and laid off nearly 1,000 workers within months. Last fall, the firm bought the on-the-brink Blue Bird school bus manufacturer; earlier this month, Cerberus closed its Canadian bus plant and let go 130 workers. Cerberus bought a North Carolina textile company out of bankruptcy in 2004 and closed two mills within the year. It bought the Alamo and National car rental chains out of bankruptcy in 2004 and moved them from high-rent South Florida to more-affordable Tulsa, Okla.
Cerberus the company maintains an even lower profile than its rivals, such as Providence Equity Partners, the Blackstone Group and Washington's Carlyle Group. Cerberus has 25 billion under management and in funds and accounts. With just 200 employees, Cerberus owns or has pieces of about 50 companies with more than 175,000 employees and a combined annual revenue of 60 billion, the company says.