Silver Lake and the deal of the next century (Fortune 1999)

The Silver Lake partners are wagering on a whole new way to invest in infotech--the biggest, baddest LBO fund ever to hit Silicon Valley. They've raised more than $2 billion in a matter of months. Can they make it work?

Editors note: Every Sunday we publish a relevant story from our magazine archives. This week we turn back to 1999, when Silver Lake Partners was an up-and-coming buyout shop in Silicon Valley. Last MORE

Toyota wants to win in pickups

Its Tundra is being retooled to fight Ford and GM.

By Doron Levin, contributor

FORTUNE -- One of Toyota Motor Corp.'s rare miscalculations in the U.S. was in full-size pickups, a category dominated by General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and less so by Chrysler's Ram.

But Toyota (TM), an also-ran, isn't giving up. Exhibit A: a new-generation Tundra pickup shown on February 8 at the Chicago Auto Show. The Tundra's exterior has MORE

Motor City requiem

In his new book, Detroit: An American Autopsy, journalist Charlie LeDuff chronicles his hometown's epic decline.

By Anne VanderMey, reporter

FORTUNE -- When Detroit's Big Three auto executives flew to Washington in corporate jets to beg for a taxpayer bailout a few years ago, they were sent home humbled and empty-handed. Their second trip, in which they drove company-made hybrid vehicles to the Capitol, was in some ways equally humiliating. Chrysler MORE

Chrysler has issues

The U.S automaker's fourth-quarter profit was up 68%. That doesn't mean it isn't facing an uphill climb.

By Doron Levin

FORTUNE -- Sergio Marchionne has worked wonders keeping the alliance between Fiat and Chrysler steady and solvent since the latter's 2009 bankruptcy. But the repercussions of the sixth straight year of falling European sales on Fiat are now hitting Chrysler, forcing a tightening of capital budgets.

With future product plans an automaker's MORE

Former CEO Ed Whitacre is bullish on GM—and America

Whitacre offers a candid but upbeat assessment of General Motors, U.S. manufacturing and the American worker.

By Stephanie N. Mehta, deputy managing editor

FORTUNE -- Ed Whitacre, the former CEO of General Motors and AT&T, declared the future of GM "very strong" during a wide-ranging interview about the auto industry and American business.

"I think the future of GM is very strong," said Whitacre, who served as CEO of the automaker from December MORE

BMW's next big thing doesn't have wheels

The luxury automaker is setting its designers' and engineers' sights on a totally different kind of "ultimate driving machine."

By Doron Levin, contributor

FORTUNE -- BMW, in a bid to reinforce its already mighty brand, has decided to help design a two-man bobsled for world competition, culminating at the XXII Winter Olympiad in Sochi, Russia a year from now. The initiative is remarkable not just because BMW designs cars, not bobsleds, but MORE