The Wall Street Journal's reporting GM CEO Rick Wagoner and Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn have killed talks on a threesome between automakers:
The chief executives of General Motors Corp. and Nissan-Renault terminated talks about a possible globe-spanning alliance, according to a person familiar with the situation.
In a phone call this morning, GM's CEO Rick Wagoner and Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, decided that the two sides were too far apart on the value of the potential tie-up and decided to stop the high-stakes talks which had been underway for two months.
A GM spokesman...
...declined to comment. The move comes ahead of the mid-October deadline the two sides had set for a decision.
Behind the failed talks was GM's demand that Nissan-Renault pay GM a "control premium" if it bought 20% of GM's stock as part of the alliance, according to another person familiar with the matter. Mr. Wagoner told his board Tuesday that investment bankers advised GM to secure a 20% control premium because such an alliance -while not technically control—would prevent the Detroit auto maker from making any other joint ventures.
Although we saw it coming like everyone else, we kinda thought they'd at least wait eleven days before the deadline the two sides had set for completion of the talks. But it now makes sense why GM's board yesterday voted to make changes in corporate governance at the General — they didn't want KirkKerk to start running around and bashing stuff in with his head.
It's breaking news, so we'll get you more as we know it.
Alliance Talks Between GM, Nissan-Renault Are Terminated (sub. req.) [WSJ]
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