Best known for producing iPhone, Taiwan-based Foxconn is making a play for Nissan Motor Co. now that its merger talks with Honda are dead. It’s not the first time the company’s attempted to gain a stake in the Japanese automaker.
Both sides expressed optimism in December when Nissan and Honda inked an MOU to continue merger talks.
According to a report in the Taiwan Center News Agency Friday, Foxconn sent one of its top executives to meet with Nissan officials late last month to discuss a possible deal. Some on Nissan’s board of directors are amenable to a link-up with Foxconn, Automotive News reported.
Nissan’s board officially ended merger talks Feb. 5 with Honda, which began in earnest with a memorandum of understanding finalized just before last Christmas. The two sides appeared to be making steady progress until mid-January.
What happened
The two sides began hitting obstacles with Honda not only asking Nissan to buy out current partner Renault, but to also submit to a merger where Honda, not Nissan, would have the leadership role and the authority to make the bulk of the decisions in the fully merged company.
These demands ruffled the feathers of execs within Nissan, according to the report from Japanese publication Nikkei. The hard feelings intensified when it became clear that Honda wanted to not only take a large stake in Nissan stock for itself but also to morph the company into a subsidiary of the Honda empire.
Nissan and Honda were already working together other projects, making them seemingly a good match.
These changes would also have included Honda getting seats on Nissan’s board of directors and to appoint a new CEO. This was reportedly the last straw for Nissan with the report indicating the smaller company terminated its MOU with Honda.
After that, the two sides were unable to bring the talks back on track to complete a deal, opening the way for Foxconn.
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Second time around
Foxconn has been looking to gain entry into the automotive industry for several years now. It apparently took a run at gaining an interest in Nissan last year, approaching Renault about buying its stake in the automaker.
The Taiwanese manufacturer also reached a deal with now-defunct EV maker Lordstown Motors as well as Apple, offering to produce the long-rumored but never-materialized Apple car. The deal with Lordstown gave it control of the former General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio.
Makoto Uchida, Nissan president and CEO, is now dealing his former choice for COO at Nissan, Jun Seki.
Foxconn aimed to help the EV maker escape bankruptcy. Foxconn paid $230 million to take over the plant and promised another $170 million in new investment. However, it was too little, too late. Once Lordstown’s shares were delisted, Foxconn backtracked on the additional cash. However, Lordstown Motors emerged from bankruptcy in fall 2023 with new owners and a new name: Nu Ride Inc., and they’ve filed suit against Foxconn to recoup the promised money.
Trump card
Foxconn’s willing to take a run at Nissan for several reasons, but the most compelling one is Jun Seki, the company’s chief strategy officer for EVs, who was the executive sent to meet with Nissan last month.
He’s important because before accepting his current role in 2023, he was Nissan’s chief operating officer. Seki was part of current Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida’s original management team that took over in the wake of the scandal involving former Chairman Carlos Ghosn and his immediate successor, Hiroto Saikawa.
However, Seki remained for just a few weeks before taking a CEO post at a different company, leaving some existing Nissan execs angry with him — even now. It remains to be seen if Foxconn with manage to strike a deal with Nissan.
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