Noting that the talks between GM and Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity arm that owns Chrysler, began over a month ago, the New York Times said, "negotiations are not certain to produce a deal."

Quoting two people close to the process, the newspaper said that chances of a merger were "50-50" as of Friday and "would most likely still take weeks to work out."

"The meetings between General Motors and Cerberus began more than a month ago, said people familiar with the discussions, and the companies have held several talks involving their most senior executives.

"Given that both GM and Chrysler are struggling, the two sides may determine a merger may not be in their best interests," the New York Times reported today.

The report, quoting the two people, said that the exploratory talks have included debates over various calculations of the savings that would result from a merger but neither side has yet to dig into each others private financial books and records.

Attributing to people familiar with the discussions, the newspaper reported that Cerberus is continuing to hold talks with other automakers, including Nissan and Renault, and added that it is not clear at what stage those discussions have reached.