The boards of Nissan (NSANY.US) and Honda (HMC.US) have both voted to end merger discussions.

Japanese broadcaster TBS reported that both Nissan and Honda's boards voted on Thursday to formally end merger talks between the two Japanese carmakers. Honda and Nissan will release their third-quarter earnings on Thursday, which were delayed by a week as the companies tried to finalize the merger. The results should give an indication of how the companies will fare after the merger fails. The market expects Honda to post an operating profit of 407 billion yen ($2.7 billion) in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with 51.5 billion yen for Nissan. Honda is expected to post an operating profit of 1.45 trillion yen in the fiscal year ending March 31, compared with 130 billion yen for Nissan, far below its November forecast of 150 billion yen and its initial forecast of 5 trillion yen.