No Deal: Nissan and Honda have formally ended merger talks

Nissan and Honda wanted to create the world’s fourth largest automaker by signing a memorandum of understanding to discuss a merger back in December last year. But after weeks of negotiations ended up without a mutual agreement between both companies, it’s now official – the merger is no longer happening.

Based on the identical press release of both Nissan and Honda, it’s confirmed that Honda wanted to propose changing the merger from a joint holding company to a structure where Honda would be the parent company and Nissan as a subsidiary through a share exchange. With the way things have shaped up, Nissan clearly wasn’t interested in becoming a Honda subsidiary and thus, backed out of the merger talks.

The press release says to prioritize speed of decision-making and execution of management measures in an increasingly volatile market environment heading into the era of electrification, both companies concluded it would be most appropriate to cease discussions and terminate the MOU.

Likewise, the separate MOU signed by Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi has also been terminated. However, that does not mean there’s bad blood between the companies involved. While a merger is out of the question, both companies expressed that they will continue their strategic collaboration on electrified vehicles and related technology.

Foxconn has expressed interest in working with Nissan, but its chairman Young Liu has already told reporters that Foxconn is aiming more for cooperation rather than buying a stake at Nissan.

With both companies saying no deal to a merger, the future of Nissan is once again put into question as it goes forward with its restructuring.