For September 27, 2006
From the newsroom of Automotive News
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GM, Nissan-Renault will keep alliance talks going

Dale Jewett

DETROIT -- General Motors will keep talking with Nissan and Renault about a possible alliance, aiming for a decision in about three weeks, the automakers said today.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner and Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. and Renault SA, met in Paris today to review the progress of talks between the automakers, which began in mid-July.

In identically worded statements released after the meeting, the automakers said the three teams evaluating the potential of GM's joining the Nissan-Renault alliance will keep working. The automakers are expected to make a decision on expanding the alliance around Oct. 15.

The statements said the focus of the talks was on "how an alliance could generate significant shareholder value for each company."

The statements followed a report today in The Wall Street Journal that GM would demand billions of dollars from Renault and Nissan for agreeing to any alliance as compensation for the greater value of GM. The report said this was the latest sign that the proposed deal was in trouble.

 

GM is off the respirator, so Wagoner can tell Renault to F' off. I thought it hilariously ironic to see Ghosn complaining that GM's execs are just out to hold onto power.

 

so wait are they gona merge. or is gm selling out to nissan

 

I believe whether there is a meeting of the minds or not, while difficult to predict, is a greater and more realistic possibility than anyone would have believed a few weeks ago.

Knowing a little something about Mr. Ghosn, I can tell you that he isn’t going to agree to any arrangement that doesn’t give him a great deal of power to make the changes he feels are needed or that doesn’t ultimately straighten Nissan/Renault.

He kicked butt at Nissan and eliminated decades of closed-minded thinking (that would have lead Nissan into the ground and out of business) only because he had been given the power to do so…while the Japanese leadership at Nissan kept holding additional meetings to discuss changes, Mr. Ghosn’s people were already making the changes!

In the end, it will almost certainly come down to a power struggle and someone will wind up with the lion’s share of it…who that will be is impossible to say at this point.

 

Nissan/Renault has a lot more to gain from this than GM. I think GM has turned the corner, and is big enough to stand on their own.

 

If it's so one-sided, why is GM still talking at all???

Keep in mind, Nissan/Renault was the most profitable car manurafturer in the world (ROI) in 2005 and perhaps 2004 if memory serves while I believe I made more profit from my garage sale this past summer than GM has made in the last year...maybe that's why GM might have something to learn from Mr. Ghosn.

 

Because someone who owns 10% of the company wants them to. Basically just to appease him.

 

GM says it gets short end of deal

Automaker says plan's benefits are uneven; Ghosn weighs options

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...=2006609280342