As Honda Motor pursued merger talks with Nissan Motor, the automaker was also eager to get a third party in the envisioned partnership: Mitsubishi Motors. Honda's hope was for Mitsubishi to join a holding company to be formed by Honda and Nissan,

Japanese automakers Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi are dropping their talks on a business integration. The automakers said Thursday that they agreed on the move.

It's official: the potential merger between Nissan, Honda, and Mitsubishi is dead. Both Japanese automakers released the same press statements announcing the end of their MOU, or "memorandum of understanding.