CHRYSLER 1, KERKORIAN 0

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian has ended his $22.8 billion hostile bid for Chrysler in what TIME Detroit Bureau Chief William McWhirter calls "an artless folly of comical proportions--the worst single deal in the history of money." Kerkorian, who said today through a spokesman that he has no plans to sell his 36 million shares, had offered to increase his ownership to 90% of Chrysler ina deal backed by former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca. "This deal simply couldn't be done," says McWhirter. "None of the traditional debt instruments were there to finance it, and no syndicate bank wanted that type of exposure." Chrysler strenuously opposed his plan to help finance the deal with $7.3 billion of Chrysler's cash reserves. Had the deal gone through, according to McWhirter, "thousands of jobs would have been imperiled and Chrysler would have been scarred forever."