GM/Chrysler Merger 'Too Horrible to Contemplate'

GM and Chrysler are indeed seriously discussing a merger, sources tell Tom Walsh of the Detroit Free Press, which just proves “how desperately some people want to exit the automobile business.” Both companies are already too big—put them together and they’d be “way, way, way” too big, leading to a mass of layoffs and plant closings “too horrible to contemplate.”  

Maybe GM just loves Chrysler minivans, or wants to add Jeep to its oh-so-fashionable SUV lineup. Maybe it wants Dodge, Chrysler, Buick, Pontiac, and GMC to join forces “in a five-point -multi-channel system full of brands that can't survive on their own.” Or maybe Cerebus Capital Management, which owns 80.1% of Chrysler, has decided that the auto business is "a giant bonfire of burning dollar bills,” and wants to get out at any cost. (More General Motors stories.)