Daimler, Renault And Nissan Expected To Tie The Knot Wednesday
After reading the tealeaves and other more reliable indicators, it looks like Renault, Nissan, and Daimler will announce their happy three-way partnership and cross-shareholdings on Wednesday.
The companies had been discussing the three-way tie-up for a while. It’s time to tie the knot.
Here are the more reliable indicators that it’s imminent: Renault’s Board Of Directors will convene an extraordinary meeting to discuss the plans on Tuesday afternoon, a Renault source told Reuters. The deep throat also dropped the hint that “Renault has decided on a communication plan for April 7 — it will be a press conference with the CEO Carlos Ghosn, I think.”
Trust me, the board won’t go to the pain of convening an extraordinary meeting, followed by a press conference with Ghosn, to announce that they increased the budget for paper clips.
No official comment could be elicited. But there are rumours swirling around that the three companies will make a joint announcement on Wednesday.
As reported before, the cross shareholding won’t be earth shattering, just a few symbolic percent. It’ll be more interesting to watch what will come out of the technology sharing. The three “expect to save ‘billions of euros’ by sharing development costs” says Bloomberg.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Better tell them boys at Renault/Nissan to keep an eye on their wallets...
In ten years time, Nissan will be on the brink of bankruptcy with a lineup of appalling products, and Daimler will sell them off, seeing them as an extra obligation. And Carlos Ghosn with be playing golf with Bob Eaton at the local country club, living off his $50 million "retirement" from Renault-Nissan.....
The WSJ has a bit more on this story. It isn't looking like a merger, but rather a technology sharing and joint venture type of deal on small vehicles. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304017404575165973682713554.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
Sounds like more CAFE posturing. MB can will try to dilute their corporate fleet average with small Nissan cars, so they can keep offering most of their current performance line-up. The question is will they sell enough of the crappy eco-models to do the trick. Nissan will, of course, get nothing. Maybe some diesel tech at best.