DaimlerChrysler moved to undo the most expensive and one of the least successful mergers in auto industry history Monday as it agreed to sell its money-losing Chrysler unit for only a fraction of what it paid nine years ago.

DaimlerChrysler (Charts) announced it will sell an 80 percent stake in its U.S. brand for $7.4 billion to Cerberus Capital, a private equity investment firm. The private equity sector has become a major force in acquisition of publicly owned companies in recent years.

DaimlerChrysler sells majority stake of its struggling U.S. brand for $7.4 billion to Cerberus Capital, a New York-based private equity group. The German automaker then known as Daimler-Benz paid $37 billion for the U.S. automaker in 1998, but it soon found itself weighed down by uncompetitive labor costs and losing sales to nimbler Japanese rivals.