[NEWS/RUMOUR] Toyota Might Be Nissan's Savior

    Toyota Might Be Nissan's Savior Following Collapsed
    Merger Talks With Honda
    ---------------------------------------------------
    After Nissan and Honda's planned merger fell on its face a
    few months back, it seemed like all hope was lost for the
    Japanese automaker. Now, it would seem that Nissan's
    salvation could be found in Toyota. The auto-making giant
    has surfaced as a backup partner for the struggling
    company.

    After negotiations between Nissan and Honda fell apart in
    February of this year, an executive from the world's
    largest automaker apparently reached out to Nissan to offer
    support, according to Automotive News. There's a lot of
    mystery surrounding what the two automakers might do
    together. Neither have publicly disclosed discussions on
    partnering or cooperation. Spokespeople for both companies
    didn't comment.

    If Toyota takes a small stake in Nissan, it wouldn't exactly
    be unprecedented. It has a bit of a habit of taking a
    minority position in other Japanese automakers to build
    alliances. It has small stakes in Subaru, Mazda, Suzuki and
    Isuzu. It also has a 50.1% stake in truck-maker Hino and it
    wholly owns Japanese minicar builder Daihatsu as a
    subsidiary.


    How Nissan got here
    At the end of 2024, we reported that Nissan and Honda
    announced they were going to explore a merger, but as quickly
    as talks started, they ended. Discussions between the two
    companies were marred by disagreements over managerial
    control. Nissan wanted to play a bigger part in
    decision-making than Honda was comfortable with. I suppose
    that is fair if you consider the fact that the decisions
    Nissan's management made are what landed it in this mess in
    the first place.

    By the middle of February, negotiations were all but dead.
    Following that, there was a lot of speculation as to whether
    Nissan could actually survive on its own, AutoNews reports.
    The company also ditched then-CEO Makoto Uchida and handed
    the reins to Ivan Espinosa on April 1.


    Ivan's plan
    He's been very busy since then, unveiling an aggressive
    turnaround plan for Nissan that doubles the number of job
    cuts to over 20,000 workers and shuts seven of the company's
    17 assembly plants around the world. The moves are drastic
    and tough to see, but it seems they may be necessary if
    Nissan wants to stay alive. He's also leaning on partners
    Mitsubishi and Renault for new models.

    Espinosa told reporters he wasn't going to rush to find a new
    partnership and that the top priority was to revive Nissan
    from within, according to Automotive News. That's one tall
    order, and probably why the company is undergoing a strategic
    review for potential partnerships.

    Here's what Espinosa said. From AutoNews:
        "This is a very open review that we're doing, and we
         are evaluating potential partners that will bring
         additional corporate value to Nissan," Espinosa
         said, adding that ideal partners would bring
         synergies in Nissan's top markets, the U.S. and
         Japan, as well as in advanced technologies.

    He added:
        "The most important thing is to have the right partner."

        [...]

        "We have many potential candidates that we can imagine
         working on or working with, and there are many ways
         that we can imagine partnering with somebody,"
         Espinosa said. "You could do integration, you could
         do capital investments, you could do spin off for
         certain business units."

    Espinosa added that he envisions many partnership possibilities
    - including another possible go-around with Honda, but I doubt
    that's going to happen. He mentioned integration, capital
    investments or business unit spinoffs as possible scenarios.


    
<https://www.jalopnik.com/1863531/toyota-might-save-nissan-after-merger-talks-collapse/>