Marital Spat Gm's Smith fires back at Perot

"A modern industrial miracle." That is how General Motors Chairman Roger Smith has characterized the 1984 merger between GM, the world's largest industrial company, and Electronic Data Systems, the biggest computer-services firm. But the marriage of the two giants has not been completely harmonious. From the beginning, there have been predictable problems in integrating EDS's data services into GM's far-flung operations. Worse, EDS Chairman Ross Perot, who is now GM's largest stockholder (11.3 million shares) and a member of the board of directors, has become a burr in Smith's side. Perot has publicly sniped at the automaker's management for its isolation,...