NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Talks between General Motors and Renault-Nissan about a possible partnership ended Wednesday after GM's demand to be paid to join an alliance was rejected.

The companies issued a joint statement announcing the end of the talks. It did not give details about how much GM was seeking, only that GM had proposed that Renault-Nissan provide compensation. It added that Renault-Nissan, which have had their own alliance since 1999, had rejected the proposal as "contrary to the spirit of any successful alliance."

Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of both Nissan and Renault, would not agree to GM's demand to be compensated for joining his companies' alliance.

"The parties mutually recognized that significant aggregate synergies might result from the alliance," said the statement. "However the parties did not agree on either the total amount of aggregate synergies or the distribution of those benefits."

GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said "this follows a unanimous decision by our board."

"When you added it up, it wasn't good value for GM shareholders," he said.

Wagner added that the deal was not a 'referendum' on his leadership.

Shares of GM (up $0.00 to $33.32, Charts) were down nearly 2 percent following the announcement, perhaps on concern that Kirk Kerkorian, GM's largest individual shareholder and the strongest proponent of an alliance, might pull back on plans to add to his GM holdings.

Kerkorian's investment firm Tracinda issued a statement expressing disappointment with the decision to end talks.

"We believe that General Motors' participation in a global alliance with Renault and Nissan would have enabled GM to realize substantial synergies and cost savings," said the statement. "We regret that the board did not obtain its own independent evaluation of the alliance."

Kerkorian advisor Jerry York was named to the GM board earlier this year.

Last week Kerkorian announced in a Tracinda filing he would like to add up to 12 million additional GM shares to his holdings of 56 million shares. Such a purchase would give him an additional 2 percent of the company on top of his current 9.9 percent stake.

A spokeswoman for Tracinda could not comment on whether he was still interested in increasing his stake in the face of the GM decision.

Still the end of the talks was not a surprise, said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research.

"I thought they'd come out of it with some minor deals, but Renault-Nissan was looking for something broader than that," said Cole.

One of the reasons GM said it wanted compensation was that joining an alliance might have precluded it from doing joint ventures with other automakers.

Cole said GM is in talks for a number of possible agreements, dealing with more limited topics such as sharing research and development costs for powertrains or new technology.

"There are a number of alliances being talked about right now, maybe not a grand coming together, but ones where the parties are trying to work out deals," said Cole. "You'll definitely see more deals like that in the future."

There was a perception in the industry from comments made by executives of the companies that the Renault-Nissan side was far more eager for an alliance than were their counterparts at GM. GM senior management was seen as exploring an alliance more to satisfy Kerkorian than due to any desire on their own part to join with the Japanese and French auto partners.

Shares of Nissan (up $0.00 to $22.81, Charts) were up about 0.5 percent in New York trading.

Shares of Ford Motor (up $0.00 to $8.56, Charts) were up more than 4 percent. Some industry analysts and experts have speculated Ford might enter its own alliance negotiations with Nissan and Renault if and when the talks with GM ended.

In response to whether GM would explore other such alliances, Wagoner said "we are open to ideas or projects that create value."

Cole said he thinks a Ford alliance with Nissan and Renault would be a possibility. He said none of those companies have the economies of scale in purchasing that General Motors and Toyota Motor (Charts) now enjoy. Cole said that whereas GM did not see an advantage to joining with Nissan and Renault to grant those potential partners the cost savings on their purchases, Ford would see a benefit from such a combination.

"That makes a lot of sense," said Cole. "You remove one of the key stumbling blocks. The three companies do not have economies of scale now."

But other industry experts say they don't believe there will be any talks between Ford and Nissan and Renault in the near term as Ford's new CEO, Boeing (Charts) veteran Alan Mulally, settles into his new position and the company moves ahead with ambitious plans announced last month to cut costs, close plants and trim its work force.

DaimlerChrysler (Charts), whose Chrysler Group unit is the third major automaker based in the Detroit area, was also slightly higher.

Talks between the GM and Renault-Nissan have been ongoing since July 14. The sides said then they would hold talks over the following three months, a time frame that had just over a week left.

Last week Wagoner met with Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of both Nissan and Renault, at the Paris Auto Show. But many industry observers have speculated that the negotiations would not produce an alliance, and from the start, GM management has seemed less than enthusiastic about a link-up.

GM has been losing money on its core North American auto operations since the start of 2005, but has narrowed those losses in recent months through a combination of health care cost savings and staff cut agreements reached with the United Auto Workers union, along with improved sales of some key products.

Kerkorian first pushed the GM board to explore such an alliance in June, including the companies taking cross ownership in one another.

GM executives have insisted throughout the talks with Renault-Nissan that they believed they were on course to return the company to profitability without a deal. But they said they would explore potential savings from an alliance. And they would not give a forecast as to when the company could expect to again turn a profit on its key auto unit.

Could a Nissan-Ford deal be next?

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