Uchida had been one of the strongest advocates within Nissan for a deal with Honda. However, relations between Uchida and his counterpart Toshihiro Mibe deteriorated as Honda became frustrated with the speed of Nissan’s restructuring and the depth of its financial troubles.

Nissan’s April-December profit crashed to 5.1 billion yen, or $33 million, a tiny fraction of the 325 billion yen profit the Japanese automaker recorded the previous year.

Honda may be willing to restart negotiations that fell apart earlier this month, on the condition that Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida leaves the automaker, according to a Monday report from the Financial Times.