 "Nissan ends suspense, tells Honda it is suspending merger talks: Report")
The merger talks between Japanese automaking giants Nissan and Honda were reportedly snapped.
Makoto Uchida, the CEO of Nissan, on Thursday (February 6) met Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe to communicate the end of the talks.
Makoto said he wanted to terminate their merger talks due to Honda, the larger of the two automakers, remained adamant on making Nissan a subsidiary, Reuters cited a source as saying.
Honda is Japan’s second-largest car maker behind Toyota. Nissan comes next in that list in the country.
The Honda-Nissan merger would have created the world’s third largest group in terms of vehicle units sold.
A bumpy ride on the road to merger
Nissan is reportedly set to formalise the decision to withdraw from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at a board meeting to be held soon, according to the source.
This Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in December 2024 to explore integration under a holding company, enabling better competition in an increasingly challenging industry.
However, the talks have been seeing a bumpy ride right from the get-go. Of the several growing differences, Honda’s insistence on Nissan becoming a subsidiary being a precondition for the merger was the one that drove the potential deal into the wall.
“A consensus was reached (on Nissan’s side) that the talks cannot proceed under that proposal,” Reuters cited the source as saying.
Nissan and Honda have not officially commented on reports regarding the status of their talks. They have, however, mentioned that they are looking to finalise a future direction by mid-February.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsA scrapping of the talks raises questions about how Nissan, which is in the middle of a turnaround plan, can ride out its latest crisis without external help. Nissan has already announced plans to cut 9,000 workers and 20 per cent of global capacity.
Nissan’s shares were up 7.6 per cent on Thursday afternoon while Honda’s were down 3.5 per cent, reversing the direction of their respective moves a day earlier.
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
