Chrysler agreed to give foreign company Fiat 35% of Chrysler stock in exchange for Fiat’s international network and expertise in making small cars.

In a letter to other shareholders, Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli said that while Chrysler received no cash in the exchange, the company was hoping that the Fiat deal would make Chrysler strong enough to receive another $3 billion loan federal bailout installment in March.

Fiat has a 9.1 percent share of the European market and has long been looking for an American partner to manufacture its cars, especially the popular small vehicle the Fiat 500, in the United States.

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee says that the deal poses a dilemma for US taxpayers, who have “in essence… written a check . . . to get a foreign entity to take over a U.S. automaker in the name of saving the Detroit Three. Hopefully the jobs will be saved. Hopefully the brand will be empowered. But at the end of the day, it poses quite a dilemma for U.S. taxpayers.”