changing nickgroups is just a facade.. what really happens is that nick is dropped and added to the new nick. So if that nick was the last in its group, all its settings will be dumped...
it doesn't actually "merge" the 2 nicks..
merging their settings would be impossible since would anope chose which settings to retain if there are conflicts.. channel founder on the other hand would probably better be transferred... i second this request.
actually when the nick is dropped the core automatically proceeds to delete the channel, so a module could automatically transfer foundership before the merging..
[Edited on 5-6-2008 by Viper]