Honda is willing to resume takeover talks to create the world’s fourth-biggest car producer if Nissan’s chief executive Makoto Uchida steps down, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations.

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.

CEO Makoto Uchida could very well fall on his sword: "If everybody says we no longer need Uchida-san,” the head of Nissan told reporters, "please fire me.”

Japanese automakers Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi are dropping their talks on a business integration. The automakers said Thursday that they agreed on the move.

Honda Motor will resume talks with Nissan Motor to form the world's fourth-biggest automaker provided Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida steps down, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday citing a person familiar with discussions.

Honda (NYSE:HMC) is ready to revive merger talks with Nissan (OTCPK:NSANY) if the latter's CEO Makoto Uchida resigns, the Financial Times reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Merger talks between the Japanese automakers fell through after Honda (NYSE:HMC) proposed that Nissan (OTCPK:NSANY) become a fully owned subsidiary,