Private equity operators are crossing their fingers. Will the debt markets have enough capacity to fund the billions and billions of recent buyout deals?

As a result, there's quite a bit of attention on the massive deal for Chrysler, which is being spun off by DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX).

Well, according to a piece on Bloomberg.com, there are some bumps in the road.

On a $10 billion loan, the private equity firm, Cerberus, wanted to get a juicy rate of 3.25% (above the London interbank rate). But there were not enough takers. So, the new offer is 3.75%. And, as for another $2 billion loan, Cerberus tried to get 6% (above Libor), but has now upped it to 7%.

This certainly seems reasonable. Despite the extreme liquidity in global markets, there are still limits.

Besides, Chrysler is not a slam dunk deal. The competition is brutal and the employee benefits are onerous.

But, it still looks like the deal is on track – although, it's not going to be cheap.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.

DaimlerChrysler (NYSE:DCX) shares soared into new highs it hasn't seen since early 2000. DCX was gaining 4.27% to $67.20 around 10:30 a.m.. And it only took 13,000 workers losing their jobs. On Valentine's day. Talk about stocks to love.

13,000 workers is 16% of Chrysler's work force. It was only this morning that I wrote analysts were expecting a 10,000 jobs cut as well as some 1,000-1,500 salaried workers in Chrysler's attempt to cut costs by more than $2 billion, or $1,000 for every car sold in the U.S. Now, the talk is of cutting $1.3 billion with 11,000 hourly workers being eliminated.

The restructuring plan would include a $3 billion investment in new engines, transmissions and axles. Makes sense after DCX reported Chrysler Group's full-year loss was €1.12 billion, ($1.45 billion), was especially hurt by declining sales in pickup trucks and SUVs.

Included in the restructuring plans:

• material cost savings of up to $1.5 billion by 2009
• eliminating production shifts
• reducing total production capacity by 400,000 vehicles on an annual basis
• idling its Newark, Delaware, assembly plant which employs about 2,000

It is still unclear, however, whether DaimlerChrysler is considering parting company with its money-losing U.S. division, especially after comments about "strategic options" were made.

Year-to-date, General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM) shares gained over 19%, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) shares over 14% and DCX shares over 9%. 80,000 factory jobs were cut in the past year in all three companies. But, it would probably have ended up being more had these measures not been taken.