Renault-Nissan Deal

[Zed]

Nissan bought 13.5% shares of Renault. This figure will increase.

[Ko_leos]

Anything greater than 33% is a controlling share (for Japan Inc).
Renault is "nice" enough to be courteous about who is boss.

Ford owns a controlling share in Mazda, outright owns Land Rover, Volvo and Jaguar.
GM owns Saab, controlling interest in Opel and Isuzu, and part of Fiat, Subaru, and Suzuki...And as of today, owns Daewoo (the non-debt laden portion).
DC owns controlling interest in Mistubishi, part of Hyundai (who owns Kia).
VW is probably the only other party who has major stakes in a bunch of companies.

[GroovinGTR]

VW owns so much they don't know what to do with it. It seems to have a good foundation with Skoda and Seat at the bottom, but its way too top-heavy. Audi, Lambo, Bugatti, Bentley, and now VW are chasing after about 5% of the market, with Bentley, Bugatti, and Lambo chasing about .01%. Piech went crazy, figured he turned around VW and Audi so he went spending like a drunken sailor. VWAG currently has 5 supercars under development! I expect the new guy to lypo the company in the near future.

Renault-Nissan seems to be the ideal partnership. It seems the German firms have difficulty in partnerships (BMW/Rover, DamilerChrysler) but the French/Japanese venture is working out well. My concern is that Nissan will soar to great heights, but Renault will soon be the one in trouble with all their crazy designs lately. Then again, the French have always been known for crazy-looking cars.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

But thanks to Piech, Seat and Skoda's reliability and brand image greatly improved, using lupo, golf, and jetta clones with a wide range of engines. BMW is even releasing a 1 series in the near future to fight the golf clones rampaging Europe. Their supercar community is pretty happy as well with development of their strange and wonderful w-engines... But before the advent of the New Beetle and Piech, VW group was in shambles (VW broke, boring Audi) not unlike Nissan before Renault.

If it wasn't for Ghosn we would still see a 3 car lineup in Nissan/Infiniti showrooms here in the US. I am very happy that Renault has taken up Nissan.

[jaje]

control is ambiguous

corporate influence
usually a shareholder that owns over 5% [most corporations have alarms to halt any entity that tries to buy more than 5% until they review its intentions] of a company's stock is considered to have some control (usually through cumulative voting)

tax law
under us federal corp taxation law 33% is considered a controlling interest and the parent company has to include its earnings in its sec reports

corp law voting rights
it depends on the articles of incorporation what a real controlling interest is...some allow cumulative voting (allow minority shareholders to use all its votes on one voting event) or even staggered voting (staggers voting of officers over time to slow influence from controlling shareholders) in order to give minority shareholders more rights...this is even so when a company even owns 51% of another

real world
the board of executives is where the control is administered...if you control the board you control the companies everyday operations b/c they appoint officers to your choosing

[NissanSpeed]

Is Nissan owned by Renault or juts controlled by Renault? Does owning 44% of the shares constitutes owning something? Does Ford own Mazda or just plenty of shares? Can somebody exlpain to me what is the real deal?

I thought they were an alliance but every forum says Nissan is owed by them. But every legal document(things that will hold up in court) says that they are an alliance. In fact is says Renault was scared of some secret take over and ran to Nissan.

[6speeder]

I think for one company to have TOTAL control of another, they have to have at least 51% of the other company's stock. That would obviously give them the majority of voting rights in any major decisions regarding the company whose stock they hold. At 44% Renault may not have complete outright control but they most likely have the biggest controlling share of Nissan. The rest of the shareholders are most likely private stock holders, Nissan management and mutual funds. If there was a holder bigger than Renault, we probably would know about it. Renault probably stopped short of acquiring 51% of Nissan's stock so that Nissan would still be considered it's own company but Renault could have command decisions over Nissan's business. At 44%, it would be VERY difficult for another company, group or individual to acuire anywhere near 45% let alone 51% to override Renault's control of the company. Nissan is a very thinly traded stock.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

If it weren't for Renault, Nissan may have gotten swallowed up by the other Asin makers. Can you see a Hyundai Maxima?

Funny how one of the worst car makers in the past, Renault, saves a critically acclaimed Japanese car company.