Senior politicians in Japan are usually not going to let Nissan die simply. The automaker has been struggling for a while now, with an outdated product portfolio, ongoing quarterly losses, and shortly, the closure of factories and 1000’s of layoffs. The Japanese authorities has been looking for a suitor and had hoped that Honda would do its patriotic responsibility and save its rival from extinction.
That deal—one branded “a determined transfer” by former Nissan CEO and fugitive from Japanese justice Carlos Ghosn—fell apart last week after Renault demanded a worth premium for its shares in Nissan, and Nissan demanded a merger of equals with Honda. In actuality, it was at all times going to be a takeover, with little or no in it for Honda in the way in which of complimentary product traces or entry to new applied sciences.
At present, we learned of yet another desperate move—the previous Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is amongst a gaggle that’s making an attempt to get Tesla to spend money on Nissan as an alternative.
Such a merger appears exceedingly removed from doubtless, even when Tesla CEO Elon Musk wasn’t fully distracted dismantling the federal government and its workforce. Whereas the corporate nonetheless maintains a daft market capitalization due to retail traders who imagine it is poised to sell billions of humanoid robots to every human on earth, as an automaker, it could be struggling nearly as a lot as Nissan.
As consultants advised us final yr, Tesla is not a well-run enterprise. Its product vary suffers, like Nissan’s, from being outdated in comparison with the competitors. It seems that customers have turned against the brand in Europe and more and more the US, and its quarterly financial results have been greater than disappointing of late. Tesla’s free money stream fell by 18 p.c in 2024 to $3.6 billion, though such is the worth of Tesla inventory that, have been a Tesla-Nissan deal to occur, the previous may pay for the latter with fairness, ought to it entertain the thought critically.