RE: Porsche Saga Drags On, And On...
Wednesday 22nd July 2009
According to various reports in the financial media, the plans to sell Porsche to VW for roughly €8bn - possibly financed by a capital injection from the Gulf State of Qatar - are now back on the drawing board.
Wiedeking - the end of an era?
Porsche Saga Drags On, And On...
Episode 996: Porsche and VW families agree Qatar deal, then the taxman turns up...
An agreement expected at the weekend between the Porsche and VW families over the planned take-over of Porsche by the Volkswagen group has been stymied - reportedly by the news that the deal could incur an 'unexpected' €3bn tax bill.
The only thing the financial media seems agreed on, is that the debacle is likely to mark the demise of Wendelin Wiedeking as Porsche chief executive. As the man responsible for getting Porsche into its present debt-ridden state (through an unsuccessful attempt to take control the much bigger Volkswagen), Wiedeking is reportedly negotiating a €100m-plus severance package, although this is still being denied by official Porsche channels.
Wiedeking - the end of an era?
It's all a bit of a set-back for Wiedeking, who until recently enjoyed a solid reputation for making Porsche such a financial success. Still, like any good soap opera, there are bound to be more surprises around the corner. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode - sigh...
Discussion
Oh how the mighty can fall....
More than a few years ago, Porsche was on the brink of failure and suffering a massive crisis. 20+ years later and the company is bigger, bolder, produces utterly amazing cars that are the envy of the world and they are back to being heavily in debt. Shame.
I wonder what would have happened if they hadn't pursued the rather ambitious take-over of VW in the first place. Would Porsche have been in a strong situation even if they hadn't done this? I don't know - interesting to find out though.
More than a few years ago, Porsche was on the brink of failure and suffering a massive crisis. 20+ years later and the company is bigger, bolder, produces utterly amazing cars that are the envy of the world and they are back to being heavily in debt. Shame.
I wonder what would have happened if they hadn't pursued the rather ambitious take-over of VW in the first place. Would Porsche have been in a strong situation even if they hadn't done this? I don't know - interesting to find out though.
sleep envy said:
he also saved it from bankruptcy
for which I assume he got bonuses while it was making a profit. A bit perplexed why he should get a buy off for having left it in so much debt it is no longer viable?Its become a tendency among HR/company lawyers to allow contracts to pay off CEOs if their contract is cut short. Even if they are being fired for running up big losses. Weird state of affairs.
off_again said:
Oh how the mighty can fall....
More than a few years ago, Porsche was on the brink of failure and suffering a massive crisis. 20+ years later and the company is bigger, bolder, produces utterly amazing cars that are the envy of the world and they are back to being heavily in debt...
I wonder what would have happened if they hadn't pursued the rather ambitious take-over of VW in the first place. Would Porsche have been in a strong situation even if they hadn't done this? I don't know - interesting to find out though.
Seems to me to be an ego-driven take-over anyway, perhaps why it has ended up in such a state?More than a few years ago, Porsche was on the brink of failure and suffering a massive crisis. 20+ years later and the company is bigger, bolder, produces utterly amazing cars that are the envy of the world and they are back to being heavily in debt...
I wonder what would have happened if they hadn't pursued the rather ambitious take-over of VW in the first place. Would Porsche have been in a strong situation even if they hadn't done this? I don't know - interesting to find out though.
king up a major company 
It's essentially a family feud between Piech and Wolfgang Porsche (whose lieutenant is not other than Wiedeking), where the former was prevented to work for Porsche following a family agreement in the 70s. Piech had to go Audi, then VW but never forgave this and always aimed at getting the Porsche name back within his control, even through VW. Porsche's attempt at a clumsy/risky takeover may well have been an unsuccesful preventive strike.
Edited by nickfrog on Wednesday 22 July 16:15
It's essentially a family feud between Piech and his cousin Wolfgang Porsche (whose lieutenant is not other than Wiendlike), where the former was prevented to work for Porsche following a family agreement in the 70s. Piech had to go Audi, then VW but never forgave this and always aimed at getting the Porsche name back within his control, even through VW. Porsche's attempt at a clumsy/risky takeover may well have been an unsuccesful preventive strike.
Edited by nickfrog on Wednesday 22 July 16:15
what you have to bear in mind is that porsche, like many manufacturers, actually make next to nothing on the cars alone. Porsche is a prime example of a company making money on the financial market rather than building cars. This whole fiasco is not as black and white as it is reported
WW's already got more money than he needs - this is all about power and he'll be furious at all of this.
...and at the end of the day, it's all due to the Gov't of Lower Saxony playing silly beggars and sticking two-fingers up at the EU directive that Porsche were counting on being enforced...
...and at the end of the day, it's all due to the Gov't of Lower Saxony playing silly beggars and sticking two-fingers up at the EU directive that Porsche were counting on being enforced...
Yeah, I have to agree. What Wiedeking did was a stroke of genius initially (albeit a risky one), but he's been well and truly shafted by the german government.
Come to think of it, could anyone legal explain to me why Porsche couldn't sue the government under EU law for enforcing unfair trading practices?
Come to think of it, could anyone legal explain to me why Porsche couldn't sue the government under EU law for enforcing unfair trading practices?
The Wookie said:
Come to think of it, could anyone legal explain to me why Porsche couldn't sue the government under EU law for enforcing unfair trading practices?
IANAL, but I suspect what happened was that Saxony repealed the law that the EU deemed illegal then replaced it with one worded subtly different...and knowing how incompetent the EU is they probably worded the ruling far too precisely for Porsche's own good......oh, and there's the small matter of how long it took the EU to deliver a verdict on the first law...by the time any appeal is heard (let alone concluded) the 998 will be a classic! Saxony and Porsche both know this, and Saxony don't care two bits about Porsche, but DO care about their nice little power over VW...
And who cares? Porsche no longer care about a loyal customer base in the UK- as has been proved by their dismissal of so many engineering faults-oil leaks etc that they have lost the loyalty they originally built up. Plus their crazy protect the 911 at all costs and thereby failing to build the best Cayman & Boxster possible. So now they build behemoths PanAm erika and Cane em for the lardy assed sauerkrauters and have finally lost the plot-ask all the owners of their 996's as their values have plummeted to the floor-what a good buy they made.
Finally got their come uppance through no surprise-greed. Goodnight stuttgart.
Finally got their come uppance through no surprise-greed. Goodnight stuttgart.
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