Porsche-VW: The Endgame?

The New York Times’ DealBook has a succinct update on the status of the ongoing Porsche-VW merger melodrama, and it doesn’t sound good for Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking.

Wiedeking made a daring play for relatively tiny Porsche to take over relatively enormous Volkswagen. He got caught in a debt vortex, however, and the deal fell apart. Then VW turned the tables and began trying to acquire a chunk of Porsche.

The negotiations have been going on for months, with Wiedeking trying to stave off the inevitable by bringing in money from Qatar. According to Bloomberg, the Qatar infusion may still be in the picture, but Wiedeking apparently will not.

Now, VW will acquire 49 percent of Porsche, with Qatar getting 20 percent of VW. Currently, Porsche holds 51 percent of VW, but is encumbered by billions in debt.

The big winner here is Ferdinand Piech, VW’s imperious, elderly chairman. He’s gotten rid of Wiedeking, although one would assume that the Porsche CEO, his Icarus fall nearly complete, could wind up someplace else. In any case, Porsche lives, but under the VW roof. Will this undermine the romance of the brand? Probably not, but the way this merger played out has probably tainted outside views of both Porsche and VW.

It’s worth noting that this endgame does solve one of Porsche's problems, albeit in a convoluted manner. Porsche doesn’t produce the kinds of vehicles that it needs to meet impending, stricter emissions standards. (It’s a company that’s dedicated to high performance, after all.) By becoming effectively a part of VW, that issue should go away, allowing us to enjoying further decades of unexpurgated Porsche thrills.