The proposed $45 billion merger between aerospace and defense giants BAE Systems and EADS has been called off, BBC News reports.
The firms faced a 5 p.m. deadline Wednesday to decide on a way forward in negotiations, which likely would have involved a request to ask the U.K. government for an extension, according to the report.
Robert Peston, BBC’s business editor, told the website the decision to end the talks does not necessarily mean future talks cannot take place between the companies’ management.
In a statement from BAE and EADS published by the Daily Telegraph, the companies said they agreed on principal terms of the merger including the legal and management structures of a combined firm.
However, the companies said they ended the talks after it became “clear that the interests of the parties’ government stakeholders cannot be adequately reconciled with each other or with the objectives that BAE Systems and EADS established for the merger.”
The British, French and German governments were involved in the negotiations and ExecutiveGov has more on the political implications of the story (click here for more).
Our previous BAE-EADS coverage
BAE-EADS CEOs to Review Merger Talk Progress as Wednesday Deadline Approaches
Report: EADS CEO Tom Enders Tells Employees BAE Merger Talks ‘Constructive’
Report: BAE, EADS Combination Talks at ‘Advanced Stage’
