On buying Hawaiian, I would imagine the Alaska Air Group would buy it and operate it as a separate entity. Just like Horizon. I doubt they would even change the name.
If anything, that would be the way to do it, most of what makes Hawaiian successful in Hawaii is the fact that people like to go to Hawaii on Hawaiian Air and they offer a much more authentic "Hawaii" experience...Besides the obvious Hawaii ambiance, our Hawaii based employees make a big difference that would be lost if Hawaiian was diluted into a mainland airline.
We don't have the much to offer a mainland airline that would not be lost if they merged with anyone.
Regardless, AK, DAL or anyone else is probably highly unlikely. We are both doing fine independently, I'm not worried about it. If anyone wanted to buy Hawaiian and merge them, they would be spending a lot of money to become a very unpopular airline in Hawaii.