"VW to buy Rest of Porsche AG" - Wall Street Journal today

[John Z Goriup]

This mornings' WSJ, in its "Marketplace " section, reports the following:

Volkswagen AG, said late Wednesday it reached an agreement to acquire the rest of the Porsche sports-car business it doesn't own, completing a turbulent takeover effort nearly three years in the making.

Read the full report in today's Journal.

JZG

[sithot]

Porsche tried to swallow a whale and got gutted. BTW: What's Wendelin Wiedeking up to these days? Ferdinand Piech is a mighty opponent and much better ally than enemy.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...9FCeDV0Rq64ZxQ

[72targa]

I guess all of those VW parts in the 914/6 fortold the future...

[curtisaa]

Porsche tried to swallow a whale and got gutted. BTW: What's Wendelin Wiedeking up to these days? Ferdinand Piech is a mighty opponent and much better ally than enemy.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...9FCeDV0Rq64ZxQ

Not true...especially when you consider the fact FP was giving the plays to the other coaches before they ran them. You can say what you want , but WW is a bright guy . He, was smart enought to earn a 1/4 $Billion
on incentive pay from Porsche. I would never throw dirt on his coffin.

...and lets not forget that his Cayenne generates 60% on Porsches' income !

[RSTarga]

There is no doubt that Piech is a brilliant engineer and an adroit politician but WW is a much better marketer. Compare the Phaeton, Lamborghini,Aston Martin, Bentley and other models pushed by Piech against the Cayenne, Boxter, Cayman, Panamera etc. Compare their sales against WW's results, and remember that Porsche was in dire straights when he took over.
WW recognized that a small maker would need to be part of a large manufacturer, his mistake was going against his owner.

[WCB4]

I fear that this will not bode well for Porsche. VW Audi Porsche it will only be skin beep pretty soon. How many will pay the extra for the hood deco. Pontiac comes to mind way too quick with this game plan. I do love my early cars though. As to the Cayenne how much of that 60% is Tourage and the Audi counterpart? Oh wait wait we get an entry leval SUV. The inside better be a real step up for the buck$ Iam just having a bad today.
I took the daily driver into the shop today no it wasn't a Porsche, after watching the mechinac struggle on removing the pressed in axle bearing for about an hour. I went over to offer a sugestion. He blew up and walked off job. The owner came over agreed with me and said I could finish the job. 1/2 hour later I was backing it off the lift the owner walks over aploigzes and sells me the bearing at cost and offers me a job. No thanx I only enjoy working on my old Porsches and old motorcycles. Thanx I think Iam done venting. The up side I did save myself about two hundred dallors.

[sithot]

Generally speaking the last man standing wins.

Here's a little more insight on the back room plays.
http://www.gtspirit.com/2011/09/11/p...merge-delayed/

"But the attempts of taking on a company 15 times the size of Porsche, the Stuttgart based company
overstretched itself. The attempt of Porsche to increase its control of the VW Group finally failed, leaving
the company with enormous debts of more than € 10 billion ($13.8 billion).
Porsche CEO Wiedeking was exit. Instead VW, in a ironic fate became interested in buying the highly
indebted Porsche."


And at last it has happened. Porsche stockholders get short changed a bit and I suppose they can thank WW for his efforts.
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...20120705/COPY…

[Reza]

we can all read this and form different opinions. but i took it as being VW was on the ropes, WW and Porche were ready to pounce. but the laws in the state of wolfsburg that protected VW, needed to be changed.

WW's mistake was to not resolve the state law earlier. and he got slapped dead by the immoveability of german government. and also, all this happened during the financial crisis, and qatar hesitated, and WW was left out to dry. lesson #1, make sure the government is already on yer side lesson #2, line up yer financing.

it was a dramatic turn of events, even just 3 months before the denouement, Porsche looked like it was going to take over VW. While Qatar was going to finance a Porsche deal, I believe Kuwait(?) oil funds, was going to be on VW's side. Funny petrodollar politics eh.

[RSTarga]

I think Peich had a lot to do with the immovability of the German star government. WW did not have all his ducks in line.

[Macroni]

we can all read this and form different opinions. but i took it as being VW was on the ropes, WW and Porche were ready to pounce. but the laws in the state of wolfsburg that protected VW, needed to be changed.

WW's mistake was to not resolve the state law earlier. and he got slapped dead by the immoveability of german government. and also, all this happened during the financial crisis, and qatar hesitated, and WW was left out to dry. lesson #1, make sure the government is already on yer side lesson #2, line up yer financing.

it was a dramatic turn of events, even just 3 months before the denouement, Porsche looked like it was going to take over VW. While Qatar was going to finance a Porsche deal, I believe Kuwait(?) oil funds, was going to be on VW's side. Funny petrodollar politics eh.

Hard to believe WW didn't have T crossed and I dotted...... I think it was the bad bounce of the credit markets that caught him short of the required umph to close the deal. Long term I do not think VW will be a bad owner.....

As far as WW's legacy; he did an amazing job w/ Porsche. Whether we like the product line in terms of classic long hoods is one story. As a case study, it is to be admired from the aspect of consumer marketing, product design, product performance, manufacturing process, quality attainment, unit sales to financial profitability. If I needed a leader of a car company he would be top of the list.