They may not let AirBus acquire them (creates minimal competition) but a private equity acquisition could help get rid of the fat within Boeing and fix their 737 problem. When stocks go down, PE looks for opportunities.
Even with Boeing's diminished stock price, their market cap is twice the largest leveraged buyout. I don't think it has a chance of being a PE strike. Their 737 problem was going cheap on the training and making the alert an option and not standard. It's airworthy equipment, as is, particularly with the software fix and, before then, airworthy in the hands of a competent pilot. Everything from there on out has been chickens pecking a sore. The Ethiopian pilots never pulled back from takeoff thrust, by the way, "landing" the plane at about 700mph, akin to you flooring it getting on the interstate and then wondering why you're doing 120 a few minutes later.