Auto Takeover of the New Century Comes Unraveled

Autoblog has picked up this news, via Reuters, that the attempted takeover of Volkswagen by Porsche has run out of gas. Actually, the takeover, which I wrote about in March, has turned into more of a merger. And now even the merger—at least on its original terms—is troubled.

The whole thing has become a truly Byzantine affair. The Economist, luckily, has a relatively tidy summary. Issues of control and debt are at the forefront, but humming away in the background is a duel between Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and VW chair Ferdinand Piech. The upshot is that Piech now wants Porsche to operate as a brand within the VW family, which includes other luxury marques, such as Bentley and Bugatti.

Wiedeking can’t be interested in being a cog in VW's vast Teutonic manufacturing enterprise—especially given the deft series of maneuvers he oversaw to place small Porsche in a position to assume a majority stake in very large VW. So while just a few months ago it looked as if VW would be Porsche-ified, it now appears that Porsche will be Vee-dubbed. This is a crash-and-burn outcome for Wiedeking. And the first big defeat for the new breed of swashbuckling, Euro-CEO that has come onto the global carmaking scene.