The media learned about an impending merger deal between Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi in December. The companies promised to supply the details of the deal by the end of January, but it never happened.
We are now told that more details will be revealed in mid-February, in one or two weeks. Carlos Ghosn, former executive of the Renault-Nissan alliance, voiced the opinion that Honda isn’t eager to absorb the struggling Nissan and Mitsubishi brands. He ventured a guess that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Japan could be exerting pressure on Honda to go through with the deal.
Whether this guess has any roots in reality or not, it is clear that the merger negotiations haven’t been going well lately. For one thing, reports came in that Mitsubishi – which is dependent on Nissan and thus also a part of the merger – wants to escape this fate and buy itself out from Nissan, becoming a standalone automaker once again.