Airbus was kicking MD's ass. It had fiscal problems which prevented it from even meeting the manufacturing needs of its meager orders which amounted to a mere 1% of the commercial aircraft market. Its meat was in defense. It hires a former GM exec to bring about a turnaround for its investors, he schemes a stock split, pitches a merger to Boeing and guess who becomes Boeing's next CEO. The rest of what happened to Boeing is now history.
Only a dumbass would believe that McDonnell Douglas wasn't headed for much deeper problems, and that goes for the likes of a grocery chain which has been struggling for over a decade ever since the Cerberus buyout/merger in 2014 which was supposed to herald "a great shopping experience that has driven improved sales trends,"...code for investor profits.
The stock has languished ever since and Cerberus is obviously eager to net a multibillion dollar profit with Kroger before the bottom falls out of Albertson's/Safeway due to biting competition from Kroger/Fred Meyer.
Just because both chains made moves before the headlines you read proclaim "bankruptcy" doesn't mean the fiscal conditions weren't raising red flags. That's typically when corporate mergers happen, and often at the expense of workers and consumers (despite proclamations of mergers saving jobs).
If a business is failing, it should either fail, or we're not practicing capitalism here (nor Conservatism).
Back to your original comment/post: You support a government-supported merger to save a dying company and don't or can't see the problem nor the similarity between BA/MD & Albertson's/Kroger.
My comment was spot-on, as was this (save for more biting language):
