Daimler is a bad idea. Chrysler merged with it and thought it was an equal partnership but ended up getting ruined by the merger after being in the best shape it had ever been with Lee Iococca.
An equal merger with Tesla would be horrid like Tesla losing 300 IQ points in a massive dumbing down but an acquistion and instant purging of ICE if practical could make sense. But wait till its bankrupt and its debt is disappeared and trash assets (liabilities) written off and its dealer contracts dissolved.
Daimler would come with a ton of lame debt and a bunch of dealers to be rid of and a bunch of ICE assembally crap to be written off and a bunch of people with the wrong skills and a beyond dumb class 8 hydrogen program to cancel and an in-the-pocket of fossil fuels union. To acquire it and instantly cancel all its fossil fuel products, purge its board and c suit of fossil fuel trash and eject its fake captured union and cancel the Daimler and Mercedes names to mark the end of the ICE era or at least call it Tesla- Daimler... maybe but let it do that to itself and fish it out of post bankruptcy- save it from Greely. Its still a dumb company with dumb executives because despite cancelling its future ICE car production it thinks its going to continue to make diesel trucks for years and the 10x dumber move which shows its brain dead is its pushing hydrogen bs for class 8 trucks hydrogen in any form! Tesla really can't learn anything from MB at this point about maufacturing or quality- Daimler is another hollowed out out-source-er. Better to take their suppliers and have them cancel their ICE component contracts. Tesla doesn't need Daimler's old factories and bad habits and ICE culture. I'd be a lot more positive on Daimler if they'd cancel their stupid diesel trucks and sell off the support of existing diesels and instantly end the hydrogen scam/ploy. Most likely they will be merged by the state into VW after VW also goes bankrupt.
Magna as the largest of the contract makers makes more sense (if they were interested)- has comparatively little debt, much smaller marker cap but larger capacity and a global presence and has made millions of vehicles for some of the better makes and is a Tesla supplier and pursuing electric and autonomy tech. There is also Inkoman, VDL, and Valmet- these smaller companies can still be acquired (if they were interested) and used to cancel ICE production.
Plus acquistions can be a major distraction and drain. ICE is being decapitalized their share holders will come begging but what they present can't be a ICE laced poison pill it has to detoxified first. The street was trying to suggest a GM acquisition or a Ford or FCA or Renault Alliance- all jokes! Buying GM would be like trying to consume a sewer rat raw with all that toxic debt and it has literally nothing to offer Tesla in tech only its endless problems and bad karma.
Rescue the share holders of that fossil fuel turd for its worker sell out sabotage green
behavior- never! Ford- you'd get the Ford family, no way! I don't believe Bill Ford is serious about going green, I think its a ploy same kind Bara is running. Judged by actions even FCA Stellantis is more serious because the FCA guy bought Tesla credits and said they'd buy Tesla skate boards and was totally agnostic in tone but also inevitable. Japan won't let Nissan go but I think Ghosen got more heat for scuttling Japan's
BEV enterants and let them eat cakes parties.
The only ICE companies remotely worth it after right sizing if it were practical or possible and its neither would be Honda, Toyota and Hyundai. Their share holders are going to wish Tesa had acquired them.