MAUMEE, OH (WTOL) - It's the perfect automotive marriage.
Maumee based DANA Corporation announced Friday it has acquired GKN Driveline of England. DANA manufactures drive axel systems for trucks and off road vehicles and GKN strictly passenger/SUV/CUV systems.
The appeal to DANA is that both companies have a lot in common but different customers.
"It's almost like combining families in a marriage. In the end of the day it's an acquisition but we're taking the best of the best, going to be having a strong position on the new challenge that being electrification," according to Dana President and CEO James Kamsickas.
Kamsickas said this is the biggest acquisition in Dana's 114 year history at $6 billion.
It will more than double DANA's worldwide workforce at 62,000.
There are 900 are employed at Dana's Maumee world headquarters.
Kamsickas said expanded sales growth will result in job growth.
"If that's the case then our engineers are going to bring in more engineers, need more sales people, more marketing people and hopefully more job growth here," he said.
Federal regulators and Dana shareholders must approve the deal. That's expected to take four to five months.
