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Ferrari and FCA are officially separated

It's been a long time in the making, but it's officially happened: Ferrari is no longer part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Following the Italian automaker's initial public offering, it has officially split off from its former parent company. As part of the spin-off, FCA's stakeholders will each receive one common share in Ferrari for every ten they hold in Fiat Chrysler. Special voting shares will be distributed in the same proportions to certain shareholders as well. Those shares being distributed will account for 80 percent of the company's ownership. Another ten percent was floated as part of the company's IPO, while the remaining 10 percent is held by Enzo's son Piero Ferrari (pictured above at center), who serves as vice chairman of the company. The shares will continue to be traded under the ticker symbol RACE on the New York Stock Exchange, and will begin trading this week as well under the same symbol on the Mercato Telematico Azionario, part of the Borsa Italiana in Milan. Since the extended Agnelli family headed by chairman John Elkann (above, right) holds the largest stake in FCA, expect it to continue controlling the largest portion of Ferrari shares as well. Between them, nearly half of the shares in the supercar manufacturer – and we suspect a little more than half of the voting rights – will be controlled by the Agnelli and Ferrari families, who are expected to cooperate to ensure the remaining shareholders don't attempt a takeover of the company. Similar to its former parent company, which operates out of Turin and Detroit, the Ferrari NV holding company is nominally incorporated in the Netherlands, but the automaker will continue to base its operations in Maranello, Italy. That's where it's always been headquartered, on the outskirts of Modena. For the time being, Sergio Marchionne (above, left) remains both chairman of Ferrari and chief executive of FCA – a position to which he is not unaccustomed, having previously headed both Fiat and Chrysler before the two officially merged. Related Video: Separation of Ferrari from FCA Completed LONDON, January 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. ("FCA") (NYSE: FCAU / MTA: FCA) and Ferrari N.V. ("Ferrari") (NYSE/MTA: RACE) announced today that the separation of the Ferrari business from the FCA group was completed on January 3, 2016. FCA shareholders are entitled to receive one common share of Ferrari for every 10 FCA common shares held.

Fiat Chrysler to pay $40 million fine for inflating sales numbers

DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler is paying $40 million to settle with U.S. securities regulators who say the automaker misled investors by overstating its monthly sales numbers over a five-year period. The Italian-American company inflated sales by paying dealers to report fake numbers from 2012 to 2016, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a complaint. Fiat Chrysler agreed to pay the civil penalty and to stop violating anti-fraud, reporting and internal accounting control regulations, the SEC said Friday in a statement. The automaker did not admit or deny the agency's allegations, the statement said. "This case underscores the need for companies to truthfully disclose their key performance indicators," Antonia Chion, associate director in the SEC's Enforcement Division, said in the statement. She noted that the new vehicle sales figures give investors insight into the demand for an automaker's products, a key to assessing the company's performance. Fiat Chrysler said it has reviewed and refined its sales reporting procedures. It said the payment will not have a large impact on its financial statements. The agency said the automaker boasted about a streak of year-over-year sales increases into 2016, when the streak actually was broken in September of 2013. When the company disclosed the sales scheme in 2016, it said that it had a "reserve" stock of cars that had been shipped to big fleet buyers such as rental car companies but not recorded as sales. The SEC said employees called this database of actual but unreported sales the "cookie jar." The company dipped into those sales to stop the streak from ending, or when it would have missed other sales targets. Fiat Chrysler said it now records sales as soon as vehicles are shipped to customers. It has also take steps to ensure that a sale is immediately subtracted from its books when it finds out the deal was scuttled because the buyer backed out or couldn't get financing. The SEC probe is another in a long string of legal troubles for Fiat Chrysler. It also faces federal investigations into illegal payments to union officials through a training center, and a criminal probe into allegations that its diesel-powered trucks were programmed to cheat on emissions tests. The company has denied cheating, but federal prosecutors charged an engineer earlier this week and said he conspired with others. In June, Fiat Chrysler's U.S.

Waymo bids its self-driving bubble cars farewell

Say goodbye to Waymo's quirky bubble-shaped autonomous cars. Google's former self-driving car division is retiring its fleet of "Fireflies" - also known as "koalas" and "gumdrops," among many other nicknames - to focus on integrating its technology into more traditional vehicles. It particularly aims to give more people access to its self-driving technology through a fleet of 600 Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which the team has equipped with its latest custom-built radar, lidar and vision systems. The minivans also come with Waymo's newest AI platform that can see farther and more clearly. Plus, they run like normal vehicles do, unlike the Fireflies, which are limited to 25mph. This move doesn't exactly come as a surprise. A report from late 2016 said Alphabet's Larry Page scrapped Waymo's plans to manufacture bubble-shaped driverless vehicles to make the company's strategy more feasible. It said Page's new plan involves collaborating with automakers to design and make cars with no pedals and steering wheels that use Google's self-driving tech. Shortly after that report came out, Waymo introduced its heavily modified Chrysler Pacificas with altered electrical, powertrain, chassis and structural system to accommodate the extra weight of the company's equipment. While Waymo will no longer use its Fireflies for future tests, you can still catch a glimpse of the cute bubble cars in various locations. This August, they'll be on display at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix before making their way to the The Thinkery in Austin, Texas, this October. You'll also find a Firefly at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California and another at the Design Museum in London.Written by Mariella Moon for Engadget. Waymo Related Video: