GM, Renault and Nissan part ways

A four-sentence announcement by Renault-Nissan yesterday confirmed that a study into a potential alliance with the world's largest car-maker has been terminated.

As reported by GoAuto on Wednesday, General Motors chief Rick Wagoner was less than positive about a three-way industrial alliance with the French and Japanese car-maker when quizzed about the talks at last week's Paris motor show - the day after he met Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn.

A GM board meeting held on Tuesday appears to have confirmed the view, but GM made no announcement following the meeting and remains under pressure from its largest share-holder Kirk Kerkorian to institute a second, independent study into a merger with Renault-Nissan.

For its part, the Renault-Nissan press release said: "General Motors, Renault and Nissan said that they had agreed to terminate discussions regarding a proposed alliance among the three companies.

"The parties mutually recognized that significant aggregate synergies might result from the alliance. However, the parties did not agree on either the total amount of aggregate synergies or the distribution of those benefits.

"Based on its conclusions, GM had proposed that Renault-Nissan provide compensation as part of a potential alliance and for potentially precluding GM from entering other alliance opportunities if Renault-Nissan had made a significant investment in GM.

"Renault and Nissan consider that the principle of compensation is contrary to the spirit of any successful alliance."