Packard-Stude Merger vs. Ford-General Motors Merger

Posted by portlandon On 2011/10/12 12:58:01

An interesting book is being released that says that General Motors was aggressively seeking a merger with the Ford Motor Company during the 2008 collapse.

"[In] July of 2008, the CEO of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, decided to approach Bill Ford and Alan Mulally, the Chairman and Chief Executive of Ford Motor Company, about a merger. The way I describe it in the book is, "this would have been the moment when the Big Three would really have become the Big One." [It was] completely out of character for GM to do this and turned down flat by Ford Motor Company,"

LINK

This is a shocking revelation. Especially since GM was once King of Detroit in car production.

How would a GM-Ford merger have played differently than a Packard-Studebaker merger?

I imagine Ford is the "Packard" in the equation, and GM playing the debt laden "Studebaker".