Lufthansa buying ITA (Alitalia)

No good can come of this. There has to be a backroom deal where the Italian government has some kind of dirt on a large German company.

I truly don't get why anyone would think they're going to even break even on this given Alitalia's financial and labor history.

And where is the value? LH is already allied with Brussels Airlines, LOT, Aegean, and Croatia Airlines to name a few. It's literally a web surrounding Italy on three sides (four if you count Egypt Air.)