Nissan and Honda are officially looking to merge

TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and a massive merger in the auto industry.

Transcript

00:00I'm Conway Gittins reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.

00:02Here's what we're watching on the street today.

00:05Wall Street is looking to put the chaos of last week behind it as lawmakers clinched a

00:09deal to keep the government funded through March.

00:12On the corporate front, the Nordstrom family is taking its eponymous department store chain

00:16private in a $6.25 billion deal.

00:20By doing so, it will allow the family to revitalize the brand without the scrutiny of outside

00:25investors and analysts.

00:28After deal-making news, it's official, Honda and Nissan are holding merger talks to create

00:33the world's third biggest automaker.

00:35The combined entity would be worth $54 billion with annual auto production of 7.4 million

00:42vehicles.

00:43Only Toyota and Volkswagen will be bigger.

00:46The Honda-Nissan merger is being done out of necessity.

00:50Tesla and Chinese automakers like BYD have changed the game, resulting in a price war

00:55that's wiping away profits and pushing low-performing automakers to the brink.

01:00Honda and Nissan will team up in order to better compete, reduce operational costs,

01:04share technology and move quicker on new car development.

01:08In a statement, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said, quote, together we can create a unique way

01:14for customers to enjoy cars that neither company could achieve alone.

01:19This will be a complicated deal with many stakeholders having their say.

01:23French carmaker Renault is Nissan's biggest shareholder.

01:27Meanwhile, Nissan is the biggest shareholder of Mitsubishi Motors.

01:32Analysts say if this merger goes through, it will cause a reshuffling of the deck, forcing

01:36other ailing players to seek merger partners too.

01:40That'll do it for your daily briefing.

01:41From the New York Stock Exchange, I'm Conway Gittins with the Street.