Nissan: will a new man at the top make any difference?

Makato Uchida did not want to run a subsidiary of Honda. The merger talks between Nissan and Honda foundered, it would seem, on Nissan’s executive management not wishing to become subsumed within Honda. So the two companies parted before they became one entity. Mitsubishi also said ‘no, thank you’ to becoming a very junior partner in the proposed merger. Nissan sought other backers, including Foxconn, but these talks have so far come to nothing.