Fiat Chrysler Automobiles withdrew the proposal late Wednesday, citing"political conditions in France" after the French government, Renault's biggest shareholder, asked for five more days to review the deal and obtain support from Nissan.
The French government, which is Renault's biggest shareholder, said it had asked for five more days to review a deal and to obtain support from Nissan, a longtime Japanese alliance partner. A French government official was more direct, saying that Fiat Chrysler was at fault for the merger collapse, placing "massive pressure," to quickly take the offer or leave it.
"An agreement had been reached on three of these conditions. It remained to obtain explicit support from Nissan," Le Maire said. Fiat Chrysler said in its statement that it remained "firmly convinced of the compelling transformational rationale of a proposal," noting it had been widely well-received in markets and in the industry and would have delivered benefits to all parties.
The combined company would have produced some 8.7 million vehicles a year, more than General Motors and trailing only Volkswagen and Toyota.If Nissan had gone along, it would have created the world's biggest auto company.