Report: GM offer sparked public talk of Chrysler sale

General Motors Corp. offered to buy Chrysler Group in late January, prompting DaimlerChrysler AG to publicly discuss the idea of selling its struggling U.S. arm, according to a report published Monday.

The offer from the world’s largest automaker remains on the table, but GM is a long-shot candidate to buy Chrysler, the Detroit News reported, citing people familiar with the situation whom it didn’t name.

The offer initially was rejected by DaimlerChrysler for being too low, the newspaper said.

It said GM offered to give DaimlerChrysler a minority stake in GM stock of less than 10 percent. And the newspaper said the proposal called for DaimlerChrysler to pay GM more than $1 billion to defray Chrysler’s health care costs, and then team up with GM to seek financial concessions for Chrysler from the United Auto Workers.

Chrysler spokesman Mike Aberlich had no comment on the report, and GM spokesman Tony Cervone repeated what the company has said since reports surfaced that his company is interested in Chrysler.

•Microsoft Corp. said Monday it sold 20 million consumer copies of the new Windows Vista operating system worldwide in February, but analysts said the data shed little light on the program’s popularity during its first month on the market.

By comparison, Windows XP, Vista’s predecessor, sold 17 million copies in the two months following its 2001 launch, Microsoft said.

“It’s a stronger than expected start,” Bill Mannion, a director of product marketing for Windows, said in an interview.

Shares of Microsoft rose 20 cents to close at $28.22 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

•IntercontinentalExchange Inc. Monday said it added the investment-banking arms of UBS AG and Societe Generale to serve as advisers on the company’s $9 billion-plus offer for CBOT Holdings Inc., parent of the Chicago Board of Trade.

Atlanta-based ICE said that adding the advisers represented support from the banks’ derivatives businesses for the takeover. In a conference call with investors on Monday, ICE Chief Executive Jeffrey Sprecher said the banks are two of the largest clearing members in the global derivatives business.

ICE’s bid is designed to sink a merger between the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and CBOT, and is timed to take advantage of a Justice Department study of antitrust issues in the deal.