NYT: GM Sought Merger With Ford First

As if the late-breaking Friday night news of merger talks between Chrysler and GM weren't astonishing enough, Bill "Pickles" Vlasic at the New York Times continued the onslaught of amazement with a follow-up story that GM had initially approached Ford before speaking to Chrysler. Apparently, GM execs approached Ford about a possible merger in July but Ford rejected the idea despite the talks progressing until as late as last month. And we though it was hard creating a name for a merger of GM and Chrysler — try coming up with one for Ford and GM. Best we could come up with was "Big Blue Moval." But we digress. The talks apparently involved several meetings between the General's big bossman, "Slick" Rick Wagoner and its president, Fritz "Free Money" Henderson. On the Ford side of the table was Bill "Willie Style" Ford; and its CEO, Alan "Boeing-Boeing" Mulally, according to the Times. Ford spokesman Mark "News-hound" Truby responded to Vlasic's determined questioning by declining to confirm discussions between the two automakers, and adding the following:

"What we can say is that we are convinced our best opportunity is to continue to integrate Ford and leverage our global assets...that remains Ford's focus."

Hmm, glad to see they're still integrating a company that's been around for over 100 years. Yeah, given that need, you'd probably want to remain focused on that. But the big question remains — if GM was for a merger with Ford before they were for a merger with Chrysler — does that make them flip-floppers, or just really desperate for another automakers cash? [NYT]