Trade News

Data giant S&P Global Inc has agreed to buy IHS Markit -- a major player in the automotive data segment -- in a deal worth $44 billion that will be 2020’s biggest merger, creating a heavyweight in the increasingly competitive market in financial information.

The mega deal, which includes $4.8 billion of debt, is a sign that deal-making activity is accelerating as breakthroughs in developing COVID-19 vaccines improve the economic outlook.

Deals touched a record high in the September quarter, with more than $1 trillion worth of transactions, mostly focused on coronavirus-resilient sectors such as technology and healthcare, according to Refinitiv data.

Under the terms of the deal, each share of IHS Markit will be exchanged for a fixed ratio of 0.2838 shares of S&P Global stock, the two companies said in a statement.

Once the deal is completed, S&P Global shareholders will own roughly 67.75% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis…

DETROIT -- General Motors and Nikola Corp. on Monday announced a reworked, smaller agreement that keeps the fuel-cell partnership intact but eliminates an equity stake in the startup for the Detroit automaker as well as plans for building Nikola's electric pickup truck.

In September, the companies announced a deal under which GM would supply batteries, a chassis architecture, fuel cell systems and a factory to build the startup's proposed Badger electric pickup in return for an 11 percent stake and $700 million. However, the deal came into question after a short seller attacked Nikola as a fraud, something the company denied.

The new deal, a non-binding memorandum of understanding, is subject to negotiation and a definitive deal, Nikola and GM said in separate statements.

Under the new agreement, GM will not take an equity stake in Nikola as originally planned. GM will supply its fuel-cell system for Nikola's Class 7 and Class 8 commercial semi-trucks, N…

HAMBURG -- Volkswagen Group's executive committee is convening on Tuesday to discuss CEO Herbert Diess' demand for a contract extension, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

"The options will be put on the table," one of the sources said, adding that the outcome of the deliberations remains unclear.

VW declined to comment.

Reuters reported on Friday that Diess had asked the families who control a majority voting stake in VW to back extending his contract as a vote of confidence in his leadership.

Diess' has encountered opposition from the board to his efforts to reform the automaker and he may review his position if his attempts continue to be stifled, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Diess was appointed head of the VW brand in 2015 and group CEO in April 2018. His contract is due to expire in 2023 and German companies tend to deliberate over contract extensions only a year before they expire.

SHANGHAI -- Tesla has obtained permission to start selling its Shanghai-made Model Y SUV in China.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published the approval on its website on Monday.

Tesla sells its locally built Model 3 electric cars in China and has been expanding the Shanghai plant where they are manufactured to start making the Model Y, which reports say will start production early next year. The automaker applied for permission to sell the Model Y earlier this month.

The automaker started delivering Model 3 vehicles made in its Shanghai factory last December and sold more than 13,000 vehicles in China in October.

The company has started exporting the Model 3 from China to Europe and said last week it plans to also start making EV chargers in China in 2021.

Since taking the wheel of Kia Motors Corp. in April, CEO Ho Sung Song has been positioning the South Korean automaker for a new era of industry upheaval.

Under Kia's five-year business plan unveiled this year, Song, 58, wants to make the company a global leader in electric vehicles, branch into so-called purpose-built vehicles and invest heavily in new mobility. To jump-start that makeover, he also will "relaunch" the brand in January.

Under the strategy, called Plan S, Kia will create a lineup of 11 models with electric powertrains by 2025, with seven EV-only models by 2027. By 2026, Kia plans to sell 500,000 battery-electric vehicles and another 500,000 hybrids, plug-in hybrids and other eco-friendly offerings.

In doing so, Kia wants EVs to generate 20 percent of its worldwide sales by 2025, and a quarter of them in 2029. Its first dedicated EV will be delivered next year.

Kia's U.S. sales were down 7.6 percent to 428,350 vehicles in the first …

Jim Farley made clear that he wouldn't stop driving race cars just because he's now the CEO of Ford Motor Co.

And Farley showed last week that he isn't just content racing for fun; he's out there to win.

Behind the wheel of his Ford Cosworth-powered 1978 Lola T298, Farley took first place in his class in the Enduro race at the Road Atlanta Grand Prix. Ford's top executive set the fastest lap time — 1:25.592 — and highest speed — 106.832 mph — during the 70-minute race, which required one pit stop.

Some of the 13 teams competing used more than one driver, but Farley competed solo. His winnings? A medal and a bottle of champagne.

"I don't know that a CEO from any car company has won a truly authentic auto race before," Mark Dill, vice president of public relations for the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association, told the Detroit Free Press.

If you've never tried to lick the side of your car during the winter, you must not be a moose.

Officials in rural western Canada have put up signs warning drivers not to let moose lick salt from the roads off their vehicles. Moose love to eat salt, and allowing the animals to be more comfortable around cars can increase their chances of becoming a highway hazard.

"They're obsessed with salt, it's one of the things they need for the minerals in their body," Steve Young, a spokesman for Jasper National Park in Alberta, told CNN. "They usually get it from salt lakes in the park, but now they realized they can also get road salt that splashes onto cars."

Jasper Tour Co. owner Joe Urie told CBC Edmonton that for a moose, "road salt is kind of like crack."

DETROIT — The GMC Hummer will be an extreme, six-figure showpiece of General Motors' electric vehicle prowess. It also will be a test for GM's ability to exert greater control over the dealership sales process in the dawning EV era.

For the next two years, GM will be pulling Hummer dealers' strings, doling out inventory based solely on customer orders and encouraging standardized pricing. The automaker even asserts the right to limit GMC dealers' interactions with Hummer buyers, according to a portion of the brand's "electric models participation agreement" shared with Automotive News by a dealer.

Dealers "can feel the breathing on the back of their necks," said Joe Aboyoun, partner at the Aboyoun-Dobbs law firm in Pine Brook, N.J. "Hopefully that's just part of the startup process. But there is a concern that this is just the beginning of a new methodology that clearly constitutes a violation of the franchise relationship."

In order to sell Hummers, G…

TOKYO — Rumor that Nissan is eyeing unwinding its controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors Corp. comes at a delicate moment for the junior partner of the three-way alliance with Renault.

Mitsubishi is mired in red ink and just embarked on a joint strategy with Nissan and Renault to carve up international markets in a scheme that greatly reduces its global footprint.

And any unwinding could cut loose the smaller player — which sells just a fifth of Nissan's worldwide volume — at a time when industry wisdom holds that consolidation is a key to success.

Executives at both companies scurried to do damage control after Bloomberg News reported this month that Nissan was exploring ways to sell all or part of its controlling 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi. Nissan bought the stake in 2016 under a deal brokered by then-Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn and his counterpart at Mitsubishi, Osamu Masuko.

Both men are now gone. Ghosn was arre…

LOS ANGELES — Ever since the turbocharged Mazda3 was discontinued after the 2013 model year, auto enthusiasts have been pining for a reprise of the hot hatch that was sold under the Mazdaspeed performance moniker.

And just in time for Christmas, the automaker will deliver something closer to it — the Mazda3 2.5 Turbo — as its top trim for the 2021 model year. But it's not really a spiritual heir to the Mazdaspeed3 because Mazda is a different car company now and racer hatchbacks no longer fit with its premium intentions.

The new turbocharged Mazda compact, available in sedan and hatchback, is refined and sporty, with all-wheel-drive and 250 hp from a 2.5-liter engine mated to a smooth-shifting six-speed automatic transmission.

"This is not a hot hatch," said Jay Chen, manager of powertrain performance at Mazda North American Operations. "We didn't build this car because we were trying to relive the days of our Mazdaspeed youth. Real…

While Carlos Ghosn sits free as a fugitive in Lebanon, two men who helped him escape house arrest in Japan are sitting in jail.

"There is only one positive in this, which is that I helped save a man's life," Michael Taylor, an inmate in Dedham, Mass., told The Wall Street Journal for a story published last week. "I wish I was never involved."

Taylor and his son Peter helped sneak Ghosn, the former Nissan and Renault chairman, out of his home in Japan inside a musical instrument case. The Taylors were arrested in May and are now fighting extradition to Japan. They haven't disputed helping Ghosn but argue that their assistance didn't break any Japanese law.

Michael Taylor, a security specialist who was in the U.S. Army Special Forces, got a call from a former client who asked him to help Ghosn flee Japan, and prosecutors say he and his son received wire transfers totaling $1.3 million for their help. Ghosn was slated to go on trial in …