GM Needs More Problems

Apparently, GM is in preliminary talks with Daimler Chrysler to see about purchasing the Chrysler Group from Daimler. In the short term, this strikes me as being a bad idea. Both GM and Chrysler are struggling and having to lay off workers to cut costs. GM acquiring Chrysler would only exacerbate this problem as redundant personnel (and possibly redundant infrastructure) would have to be eliminated, while GM would have to spend large amounts of money to make Chrysler's systems compatible with its own. If the situation is managed well, things could work out in the long run, but GM has enough of its own problems without having to worry about Chrysler's as well.

I expect GM's executives realize this and don't really expect anything to come of this.